The Best Years
by sweetiepie08
Summary: The gang is off to college where they hope to have a normal life like everyone else. But, being them, can they ever have a normal life? Revisions finished!
1. Graduation

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.

This is my second story so please continue to be nice.

* * *

Chapter 1

(2 weeks before Egypt trip)

Yugi Muto was trying on his graduation cap & gown. He couldn't believe that he and his friend were actually graduating high school.

"Yeah he thought it was a weird coincidence too…" Yugi said into his new cell phone (a graduation present from grandpa) which he held with his shoulder as he tried smashing the cap on over his hair.

"At least you kind of know Marik. My girl is probably gonna be some stuck-up snob." Tea complained on the other end.

"Tea, just because she's from Dice Beach doesn't mean she's gonna be a snob."

Dice Beach, in addition to being Domino High's rivals, was known to every teenager in every other near-by city as the home to the snottiest rich kids around. Millions of jokes were made about the girls being ditzy sluts and the boys being macho jerks. Unfortunately for poor Tea, Molly Dillon, her roommate at Domino University, was from there.

Yugi on the other hand, and by some weird joke he suspected the universe was playing on him, got Marik. Apparently after Battle City, Marik enrolled in Cyber School and had been working to get into college and turn his life around.

"And besides, I don't know Marik all that well anyway. Sure we kept in contact after battle city but it's basically just an e-mail friendship." Yugi finally got the cap over his hair. It sat still for a few seconds before popping off and flying across the room. He could easily hear Yami laughing from inside his mind. He smiled than sighed remembering than they might only had a short time to hang out before Yami discover his past.

"Look Tea, I gotta go. See you tomorrow". Yugi hung up the phone before going to pick up his hat.

"Ok now let me get this strait again…" Yami said before appearing. He leaned against the dresser with his arms folded. "You're wearing that because you finished school."

"Yeah and then I go to college in the fall. I can't wait. It'll be this whole new adventure."

Yami smiled sadly as Yugi talked. "Sound's like fun. I would like to be around to see that ...Yugi about Egypt…"

"I know what you're gonna say. That it might be our toughest challenge yet and that it might change everything. You know, for some reason I just can't shake the feeling that…well that…"

"…that this might be our last adventure together."

**[-]**

Yugi flinched as Tea ran the hot straitener though his hair. Sure, she hadn't knicked him yet, but he still got nervous every time that thing went near his ears.

"Thanks again Tea. And you promise you won't tell the guys?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever…" Tea said coldly. She had been snippy ever since she got her roommate assignment. "By the way, I looked her up last night."

Yugi signed preparing for some rant. By her tone, he expected Tea finding out Molly had been on one of Dice Beach's teams. It didn't matter which on. Having rightfully earned the vote for most school-spirited, Tea was obviously passionate about their school's rivalry.

"She didn't even go to Dice Beach. She went to ACPA."

ACAPA: Academy for Creative and Performing Arts. It was one of those schools for kids who could legitimately grow up and make a living as an artist or performer. As a matter of fact, to get into some of their programs you had to have already been in a professional show.

"Well that's a relief. You two will have a lot in common. I mean she's into art, you're into art…"

"Yugi weren't you listening to me?"

The confused boy blinked in surprise. "I-I thought I was."

"She's gonna be a dance major! And I just know when she finds out I'm a dance major too, she'll be all 'oh, I'm so much better than you because I went to ACPA.'"

"Oh come on, you really think she's gonna say that to your face?" Yugi chuckled. He knew his friend well enough to know she was just entertaining her own insecurities but he also knew well enough to not bring it up; especially if she had a hot cosmetic tool in her hand.

"Well, she'll at least be thinking it." Tea turned off the straitener and grabbed Yugi's cap. "Ok, moment of truth time." The cap slid over Yugi's newly smoothed hair with ease.

"It fits! Thanks Tea." Yugi adjusted his cap as Tea admired her handy work. "You know…that was a pretty girly hour we just spent…"

"I know. If you have to go spit or watch football now, I totally understand." Tea joked.

Yugi laughed as he removed the cap. "So, how do you know she's gonna be a dance major?"

"I saw her FaceBook page. Her profile picture was of her in a dance costume doing an assisted arabesque penchée."

"Oh…" Yugi replied pretending to know what an assisted arabesque penchée was "But still, keep an open mind. It sounds to me like she could be your best friend and teach you a lot of stuff. You don't know her so just give her a chance."

Tea sighed and dropped her arms. She knew Yugi was right and that she was just being stubborn.

"You're right Yugi. You're always right. I should have figured that out after you called the Super Bowl 4 years in a row."

Both of them laughed then looked in the mirror at Yugi's flattened hair. "Have I been playing Duel Monsters too often or does my hair look like a Kuriboh?" he asked pushing the bangs out of his way. Tea simply smiled and nodded.

"Yes and yes."

**[-]**

"…and she even went to LA for a competition! LA!"

Tea had been looking though Molly's FaceBook all day. She had friended Tea earlier giving the obsessed girl access to all her pictures, posts, friends and basically her whole life. All of her friends fidgeted at let their eyes at let their eyes wander. Sure, they were brave enough to face centuries old evil spirits and brain washing cults, but there was not a person alive brave enough to face a jealous Tea, much less point one out.

"Well…" Joey started nervously flipping his cap "maybe another dancer won't be that bad. I mean Yugi and I are both duelists and we get along fine. I mean Yugi is even better than me but…"

"Are you suggesting I'm scared she might be better than me?" Tea exclaimed angrily. The look on her face could turn a grown man into a whimpering child…much like it did to Joey.

"Well…nobody's the best all the time…"

Tea looked like she was about to punch Joey's teeth out. Luckily, Yugi was there to calm everyone down.

"Come on guys. It's our last day in high school. Do you really want to spend it fighting?"

Both of them backed off and smiled at each other. Yugi was right once again. Sure they were all going to college together, but high school was a time when all their adventures happened. Each one, though dangerous at times, brought them all closer together.

**[-]**

Over the loud speaker, they heard a teacher announcing it was time to line up. After a group hug, they all departed to get in line.

"Every year, the graduating class chooses a student they feel best represents them. This year, the student was not chosen because he's the loudest or *chuckles* tallest. He's not the star quarterback or student body president. But he does embody the spirit of this class. He's a courageous young man with a heart of gold and the determination to never give up. Ladies and gentleman, your class elected speaker, Yugi Muto."

All his friends along with the rest of the class cheered for him as he approached the podium. The principal shook his hand before stepping down. When Yugi took the mic, the entire stadium went silent. The teenager's friendly yet confident voice echoed all around them.

"Fellow classmates, when I first started at this school, I was the quiet kid in the corner. I didn't talk much and not many people talked to me. But that all changed the day I met my friends. All of them helped me grow. I am now more strong and confident. I would not be who I am today if not for them. If nothing else, that's what we should take away from this place. We should take away the lessons we learned from our friends. I, myself, have learned that no person is just one way, everyone deserves a second chance, and to never give up even when things seem hopeless. But most importantly, I've learned that we can endure anything with the support of those who love you. Because I have this support, I know I never have to face anything alone. My friends will always be right behind me no matter what and I am behind them. As we leave here today, many of us may be separating from our friends. We may be going to different schools, studying different things, and meeting different people... but if you're lucky enough to have friends like mine, no matter how far you may be from them, you are never truly apart…thank you."

Yugi stepped down and took his seat to a round of applause. He looked over at his friends whose eyes were glazed over with tears as were his. Joey and Tristan gave him a thumbs-up and Tea mouthed "good job". Bakura and Duke just smiled and nodded at him. Inside his mind, he could hear the spirit say in a kind and sincere voice "I could not be more proud of you, Friend."


	2. First day

Revisions finished! I took out some things I felt didn't belong and some plotlines I felt were going nowhere. I also cleaned up the dialog, spelling, grammer, and typos a bit. enjoy :)

* * *

Chapter 2

"Man, I hope I didn't forget anything." Joey said dragging a suitcase behind him. They all, luckily, were in the same dorm. Joey, Tristan, Duke, Bakura, and Yugi were all right down the hall from each other. Joey and Tristan were rooming together, as well as Duke and Bakura. Tea's room was a floor below them but her room was directly under Yugi & Marik's. She came up anyway to both help them unpack and avoid meeting her roommate in person.

"Well, this is it." Yugi said, his nerves masked by cheerfulness. As a matter of fact, Yugi had been acting strange for a few weeks now. He had admitted that he was nervous about living with Marik but he didn't tell them to what extent. However, they didn't press the matter. He would tell them all eventually.

"I'll help you unpack then you come down and help me unpack." Tea said with a smiled. Yugi Chuckled and shook his head.

"You have to get settled in too. It'll take forever if both of us go back and forth. Look, you can come in but you have to go meet her eventually."

Yugi took out his key and stuck it in the lock of his room. He turned it and then pressed on the door. Locked? But how? He tried the key again. The door opened, but Yugi was dragged in by another force pulling the door. Marik peaked out from the other side of the door and laughed. "Sorry Yugi. The door was open." Marik laughed some more.

"No problem." Yugi said standing up.

"Nice to see you again guys." Marik wanted to prove that he wasn't the same person he was when they first met. He couldn't pretend Battle City didn't happen. But Egypt had happened too…didn't that count for something? But trust was harder to gain than it was to lose...not that he'd ever had it in the first place.

After both adventures, he'd watched them as they talked and laughed. Aside from Odion and Ishizu, Marik had never had true friends before, but he wanted them. He set his sights on Yugi once again, but this time seeking friendship instead of revenge. "Your stories must not be over" Ishizu had said to him on the day when he received his room assignment. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Did they even have a story in the first place? If they did he was certainly the villain. But he was willing to change all that.

"So, uh, Bakura, want to go unpack?" Duke finally said after an awkward silence.

"Um, alright." Bakura answered before they headed down the hall to their room.

"Well, we should get unpacked too." Tristan said, beginning to head down the hall. "See you later."

"Yeah and I better get going before he takes all the space. So I guess I'll catch you later too."

He and Joey turned and went down the hall in search of their rooms. Yugi and Marik were left to stand there awkwardly looking at the floor.

"Well…come in then…" Marik finally said opening the door wider. "International students moved in a few days ago so if you need help setting up…"

"Thanks for the offer Marik but I think I'll be ok. Tea's here to help."

"Huh? But don't you need to get unpacked too?"

"She's just avoiding meeting her new roommate." Yugi sighed with a mischievous smile. Tea stopped and turned red out of both anger and embarrassment.

"Yugi…" She said through clenched teeth.

Both Tea and Marik helped Yugi get unpacked. It didn't take as long as Tea had hoped and soon it was time for her to meet her roommate. She walked up to the door nervously and put a hand on the knob. Yugi smiled and reassuringly put a hand on her shoulder. They could faintly hear music playing in through the door.

"Ready?" he asked gently. Tea sighed and opened the door. Inside, a blonde girl was dancing around putting clothes in her dresser. She turned around and smiled brightly at them.

"Hi" she beamed at them "You must be Tea. I'm Molly." Tea reached out for a hand shake but the girl hugged her instead. Yugi had to laugh at Tea's surprised expression. She stood there stiff as a board the other girl hugged her like they were best friends. When Molly pulled back she seemed to notice Yugi for the first time.

"Hey, are you her boyfriend?" Her question was met with a chorus of frantic "no"s and embarrassed blushing. "Ok, ok, not a boyfriend."

Yugi held out his hand and introduced himself. "I'm Yugi Muto." He mentally prepared himself for the gasps of surprise and general fangirl-ing that had become common sometime after he became king of games. What he didn't prepare for was the girl simply shaking his hand and a simple "hi" before she went back to unpacking her clothes. Yugi was pleasantly surprised but Tea was strangely offended.

"Don't you know who he is?"

Molly glanced at Yugi confused than looked back at Tea. "Yeah, he's Yugi. He just told me."

"He's not just Yugi. He's the King of Games!" Tea fumed. She herself didn't know why she was reacting this way. However, that didn't stop her mouth. "Have you been living under a rock? How have you never heard of him?"

The blonde girl just looked even more confused than before. Yugi tried to explain in a friendlier manor.

"It just means I'm the Duel Monsters champion. I'm not a real king or anything…" He replied blushing. His modest nature made telling people about his title uncomfortable.

The girl knit her brows in surprise. "The card game? You mean they have champions for that? I don't mean to be rude but… I didn't know. My whole life has been nothing but dance since I transferred to ACPA so…" Molly stammered, trying to keep the wrath of her new roommate away. From her angle, this looked like it was going to be a taxing year. Nervously, she played with the charm necklaces she was wearing.

Tea huffed out a weary "whatever" then began unpacking her things. Yugi looked back at Molly apologetically before turning to help Tea. She certainly wasn't acting like herself and he would talk to her about it later. After a few moments of tense silence Tea finally spoke up. "So, you bunked the beds already?" She asked coldly but casually.

Molly grinned mischievously "Yeah, so there'll be more room for activities." Tea smiled for the first time that day then quickly took it away. Yugi smiled slyly as if to say I-told-you-so. _Stepbrothers_ was one of their friends' most-quoted movies after all. She just rolled her eyes and went back to unpacking. Their friendship went beyond words. Just looking at Yugi she could tell she would get the "give her a chance" speech again.

They worked in silence keeping a considerable distance from each other. Tea would sometimes quietly talk to Yugi but kept giving her roommate the cold shoulder. Yugi could hardly stand it. He looked at Molly with pity. He knew all too well how it felt to be the odd man out. At the same time he was concerned about Tea. He had never seen her treat someone like this and knew if she kept it up, she could end up making herself miserable. _Well…,_ he thought_, if she won't make the effort, I will_. "So Molly, you said you transferred to ACPA."

"Oh, yeah" she replied casually "I spent the first half of my freshman year at Dice Beach before transferring."

"How come you waited until the middle of the year?"

"It just seemed like the right time. I wanted to just throw myself into my dance, you know."

Tea suddenly snapped up from the suitcase she was unpacking. "Well, I'm hungry. We should get lunch." She grabbed Yugi's arm and pulled him out of the room before he had time to reply. Yugi looked back sadly at Molly. She looked somewhat upset. He wanted to invite her to come along. Sighing, he decided to use this time to talk to Tea.

[-]

Marik wandered around campus by himself. He figured Yugi had gone off with his friends after he never came back. Oh well, guess he still wasn't part of their group of friends. After all the stuff he did to them, it probably would take a while before he could join them.

A football came flying from a nearby field and landed right in Marik's path.

"Hey, can you toss that back?" asked one of the guys playing in the field. Mark nodded then threw the ball back, all the way to the far end of the field. While most of their mouths hung open, one turned back to Marik, his eyes wide with surprise. "Hey…you want a play with us buddy?"

Marik squinted like he was considering their question but really he was just reading them. Reading people had always been something he was good at. "Uh…no thanks" he called back before moving on. It wasn't that they were bad guys; they just seemed a bit shallow for his taste. Besides, he already had his eye on a group of friends. At the very least, he wouldn't have to explain his back to them. All he had to do was get them to trust him…

While passing the fine arts building, he heard some music playing. Not too strange for an arts building but it was when most of the students were at lunch. Drawn by his natural curiosity, Marik entered the building. He followed the music to one of the dance studios. Inside, was a blond girl wearing a thin coral sweater over a black unitard. He watched her smooth, flowing moves as she danced to the music. She did turns, leaps, kicks, floor work, and even a few gymnastics moves. What was most impressive, however, was the way she was completely lost in the movement. Her passion for dance practically radiated off of her. When the music ended, the girl finally noticed she had an audience.

"Oh, uh…hi…Can I help you?" the girl asked surprised.

"Yes…I mean no…I mean…I heard the music and I came inside and…" all of Marik's willpower went into not blushing. He was so embarrassed for getting caught staring and unfortunately when he was embarrassed, he tended to talk…a lot. Her green eyes just looked at him with patience and curiosity. Somehow, that incoherent babble lead him to blurt out "That was really good."

He tried to hide the surprise on his face but he had no such luck. Since when did he go around blurting out compliments to random strangers? It didn't matter though; she was too happy and excited to notice.

"Do you really think so?" she asked, her eyes dancing with excitement. "That was the first piece I ever choreographed. I was worried I put in too many tricks."

He couldn't help but read this girl, although he probably didn't need his talent for that. He'd already gotten quite a lot from this excitable girl.

"I'm Molly. Contemporary and Jazz." The girl reached out to shake his hand. "What's your name? And what's your style by the way?"

"I'm Marik." He said taking her hand in his. "I'm not a dancer."

"Oh, really?" She smiled briefly glancing at his bicep. "Not many other people hang around the dance studios at lunch time. Then, not a lot of dancers do either." She giggled swinging their hands back and forth. "You know we're still holding hands right?"

Embarrassed, Marik jerked his hand away and stuffed it in the pocket of his tan cargos. Molly let hers wander to the tangle of charms around her neck.

"So, have you eaten yet?" The dancer asked. For whatever reason, the meaning of her question wasn't coming together in his mind. "Cause, if you didn't…then I was wondering if you maybe wanted to have lunch with me…" The question surprised him. He had always been careful choosing the people around him. Even as leader of the rare hunters he took time to make sure to find out all he could about someone before recruiting them. Was someone really willing to take a big honking leap of faith and befriend a total stranger? What surprised him even more was the sound of his own voice accepting.

[-]

"Ok Tea, we need to talk. What's gotten into you?" Yugi waited to get their food and sit down before starting. "You never act like this and I'm just concerned is all."

Tea sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew claiming to be fine would be useless. Yugi knew her way too well for that. And she knew him way too well to know he wouldn't stop prying for anything less than the truth. After a long silence, she reached into her bag and pulled out an issue of _Kick_, a dance magazine, and passed it across the table. Yugi opened it to a dog-eared page. It opened to an ad for a dance wear website but on the page was a picture of a blonde girl twirling dreamily in a purple dress. Still not getting it, he continued to study the page carefully. It was strange; the girl looked kind of familiar… Wait…

"Is this Molly?"

Tea nodded sadly before replying "Yes, I found that yesterday. I went on the website and sure enough she was on there modeling costumes. Then after that…"

"There's an 'after that'?" Yugi cringed

"I Googled her again and found a video of her dancing. Yugi, she was great! I was always the best dancer at Domino but now…" Tea let her face fall onto a hand propped up on the table.

Yugi reached across the table and took her other hand. "You're great too. Don't worry about how good someone else is. If you do, you're just going to hold yourself back. Molly seems nice enough. I bet she'd be willing to help you and, who knows, maybe you can teach her too."

Tea laid her hand over Yugi's and sighed. "How do you always know what to say?" She smiled at her best friend and he smiled back. Their nice moment, however, was broken up by Joey, Bakura, Tristan, and Duke.

"Hey Tea, what's the story with your roommate?" Tristan asked leaning on the table.

Duke came in next to him. "Is she hot?"

"Guys…" Tea moaned annoyed. She was getting sick of her male friends talking to her like she was a guy. Yugi pointed to the magazine that was still open on the table.

"That's her."

The guys all grabbed for the magazine, gawking at the girl on the page. Bakura blushed and let out an "Oh, my" while the other boys let out various "whoa"s. "Tea, you have to introduce us!" Joey pleaded; his eyes open wide with excitement.

Duke pushed Joey away. "Come on, Tea. We'll be cool."

Unconvinced, Tea snatched back the magazine. "You're acting like dogs over meat." She started sternly. "I just met her and I'm not unleashing any of you on her or any girl I know any time soon. At least not until you grow up."

"Besides, it looks like someone already beat you to her." Yugi chuckled as he pointed across the room. At a table against a wall, Molly was already sitting down with Marik laughing about something. The guys let their jaws drop, hardly believing what they were seeing.

[-]

"So, the whole team is standing under this tree watching the stage. I hear a snap then wham! The tree branch falls on my head."

Marik chuckled as Molly retold her story. He couldn't remember how they arrived on this subject, nor did he care. Just on the walk over he'd told her that he was from Egypt and about his brother and sister and she told him her parents both coming over from Ireland and her grandmother who still lives there.

"My team's all looking at me concerned, but at the same time they're all crying because they're laughing so hard. My coach tells be to go to the infirmary. I get there and the medics all have a good laugh too as they're bandaging my head. The next day, cause it was a two day competition, one of them come up to me and goes 'Hey stick girl. You're the laughing stalk of the whole infirmary.'"

Marik laughed along with Molly. She flicked a golden tousle out of her face and smiled brightly. As she was distracted by her hair, Marik took the opportunity to study her again. His eyes wandered to the silver chains around her neck.

"I hope for your sake you're looking at my necklaces."

Damn it, he was caught staring again. How did that keep happening? He looked up a Molly's face. She smiled impishly and cocked an eyebrow. Embarrassed, he tried to explain. "Yes, I was actually. Why do you wear so many?" said the boy who used to wear four armbands and a chocker at the same time. He'd toned it down since then, trading his lavender shirt for a navy blue sleeveless t-shirt and a vest.

"Well…" she started thoughtfully "each one has its own significance, to me at least." The blonde held up the little silver pair of ballet slippers first. "This one's probably obvious. I'm a dancer, they're dance shoes. But it's also kind of for my mom. She was a dancer too. She became a choreographer after that. This one…" She held up a multi-colored guitar pick next. "…is for my dad. He plays guitar and sings. He taught me too. He was going to teach my brother but he was never that interested in music." She dropped that one and brought up a square diamond. "This one's for my brother." She dropped it without a further word of explanation. "This…" she began, picking up a silver ring. Two hands came together at the bottom of the ring. They were holding a heart that had a crown on top. "…is the Claddagh. It's a Celtic symbol. My grandmother gave it to me and she told me the symbolism behind it. The arms stand for friendship, the heart stands for love, and the crown stands for loyalty."

Marik smiled and nodded in genuine intrigue. Friendship, love and loyalty? He liked that. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for those things he might not have made it out of the darkness. They seemed to be important to this girl as well, as did her family. He liked that they she seemed to be close to them.

"I'm so glad you creeped into the studio today." She said snapping him out of his thoughts. "I was so nervous about making friends here. All my friends from high school are scattered everywhere and none of them came to school here with me. Do you have a lot of friends back home?"

He hesitated to answer the question. He didn't want to lie but the truth would sound like _I spent five years starting a criminal organization and seeking revenge on a guy who died thousands of years ago, so I didn't have much time for a social life_. Nope, if he said that she'd think he was insane. Instead, he went with "My best friends are actually my brother and sister" which was the truth…it just didn't have the whole story behind it. "Are you close with your brother?" He asked trying to get the subject off of him.

She smiled nostalgically and touched the diamond that hung from her neck. "Yes" she replied "you could say that." The girl stared off into space smiling softly. Marik immediately deduced that she was thinking of her brother. Soon, he was caught in thoughts of his own siblings.

"I'm sorry; we've been talking about me a lot. What about you?"

Her question once again brought him back into the world. "What about me?"

"I don't know. I just met you." She answered. "Tell me something about yourself."

He paused for a second and searched him mind for something that wouldn't make her think he was completely insane. "Well, I'm sort of a duelist." He mentioned, though the truth was he hadn't dueled since battle city. She pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh and which completely perplexed him. What was so funny about being a duelist?

"I'm sorry, that wasn't about you." She answered once she calmed down. "It's just that this morning I couldn't tell you who any duelists are and today I've already met two."

He relaxed a little hearing this. "So you really don't know anything about dueling?" he asked, a bit hopefully. The less she knew about dueling, the less likely it was that knew about, say, Battle City. No one knew what really went on that blimp, of course, but still…

"No, not really. I have heard about on duelist, Joey Wheeler, but that's only because I had a friend who thought he was cute."

A few tables away, Joey was busy eavesdropping. He shot up when he heard his name mentioned. "Tea, you _have_ to let me meet your roommate. She just said her friend thought I was cute."

"What? Joey, have you been listening in on their conversation this whole time?" Tea scolded.

"Well, yeah, but that's not the point." He said. "Look, just get that girl's number for me; you know, as a favor to a friend."

"Forget it. I'm not going to help you creep out some poor girl." She answered firmly.

Joey was almost begging by now. "Please. I'm just going to talk to her. I won't creep out anyone, I promise."

"Fine." Tea relented. "You can go talk to Molly. Just promise me you won't act like a pig."

"Please Tea, I'm always classy." He answered, and after a quick check to make sure his fly was up, he was off. He opened by roughly throwing an arm around Molly, completely startling her; by Tea's standards, not a good start.

"Hey there, Joey Wheeler at your service." He introduced himself. "I just happened to be walking by and I overheard you saying someone thought I was cute."

"Are you serious?" she asked after a long, uncomfortable pause. She looked over to Marik for confirmation, who responded with a nod.

"Look, I am Joey Wheeler and I can prove it." He said, whipping out his wallet and producing his driver's license. "See? Joey Wheeler, blonde hair, brown eyes, born January 25th, organ donor."

She let out a nervous laugh as she looked at the license. "Wow, you really are Joey Wheeler."

Joey nodded proudly and put his wallet away. "Look I know I tend to come on a little strong…" He started as he removed himself from her personal space. "But, I heard you your friend likes me and, well, nothing makes Joey happier than making a fan's day."

"Oh really?" Molly asked skeptically.

"Really." Joey answered with a smile. "I was thinking that if you could give me her number, I could call and surprise her."

She thought about it for a moment. Then, to the surprise of both joey and Marik, she answered "Fine" and proceeded to write down the digits.

Overjoyed, Joey lifted her into a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you so much. I'm going to tell Tea I approve of her roommate, ok?"

Deciding to help her new roommate out, Tea got up to free Molly from Joey's hug. "Molly, these are my friends: Tristan, Duke, and Bakura. I see you've already met Joey and Marik." She said, introducing each one.

As Molly reached out to greet everyone, Yugi turned to smile at his oldest friend. Now, this was the Tea he knew.

[-]

"Don't worry, sister. It went well…Yeah, they're all here…We hung out a little bit, yes…I hope…"

Yugi sat on his bed listening to half of the conversation Marik was having with his sister. He had already talked to his brother and now it was Ishizu's turn.

"I did meet a girl. Did Odion tell you that? ...She's very sweet. I told Odion that too…" As his sister talked on the other end, a smile began to tug on the corners of his mouth. "What? No, she's just a friend…I'm on the phone, how do you know what face I'm making?"

Yugi shook his head and chuckled. He knew what face Ishizu was referring to. In fact, he made the same one when he said he and Tea were just friends.

"What? I don't know. You're the one who sees the future…Yeah I'm sure you see that in my future." Marik said sarcastically. "Huh? Ok, hold on." Marik shook his head and brought the phone over to Yugi. "She wants to talk to you."

Confused, Yugi awkwardly took the phone. "Um, hello?"

"Yugi, it's been a long time." Ishizu's smooth voice came in from the other end. "How are you and Marik getting along?"

"She means am I being nice to you." Marik cut in from across the room. Yugi smiled in disbelief. How close were they that he knew exactly what Ishizu was going to say?

"We're getting along fine and yes he is being nice to me…Say did Marik tell you how pretty the girl he met was?" Yugi said giving Marik a mischievous grin.

"Yugi!" The other boy cried in playful exasperation while snatching up the phone. "…no…I didn't think it was important…Well, yes but…and now you're telling Odion…come on, I just met her…She's Tea's roommate… Well what does that have to do with anything? …Sister, I love you but sometimes you're impossible…Ok…I love you too…Bye."

[-]

Lying in bed that night, Tea thought about what Yugi said to her at lunch. Molly seems nice enough. I bet she'd be willing to help you and, who knows, maybe you can teach her too. She knew no matter how good you were, you're never perfect. What did she have to lose?

Swallowing her pride, she leaned out form the bottom bunk she was sleeping on. "Molly, are you still awake?"

The blonde girl peaked out from up top. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Well…" Tea started apprehensively. "I saw a video of you dancing. You were great; I especially liked your leaps. Do you think you could give me some pointers sometime?"

"Sure, no problem."

Tea leaned back into bed and exhaled. There, that wasn't so hard, was it?

"And Tea…" Molly spoke still hanging from the top bunk. "I saw a video of you too." Tea held her breath expecting a litany of criticism. "I saw you tapping. You were really good and tap is where I struggle. I was hoping you could give me some tips too."

Tea relaxed into her pillow. _This is going to work._ She thought. _One day at a time. _"By the way, I was a little surprised you gave your friend's phone number to some guy you just met." She commented. "I mean, Joey's harmless but still…"

"Oh crap!" Molly popped up in bed. "I forgot about the number… I guess I'll fix it tomorrow."

Tea lean out again, confused. "What about the number?"

[-]

"Look buddy, there is no one by the name Jenna Tools here, or anywhere. Stop calling." The guy on the other end hung up, leaving joey to angrily hang up his phone.

"Get the smoothie place again?" Tristan asked, laughing.

"Eh, shut up."


	3. Halloween

Chapter 3

Tea slowly opened her eyes one mid-September morning to find a giant black spider sitting on her chest. She screamed and threw the spider across the room. Surprisingly, it hit the wall with a cheerful squeak. Tea just stared at it eyes wide with surprise. From the bunk above her, she heard Molly's unmistakable  
"har-har" laugh.

"Ugh! Molly! What was that for?"

"Halloween…" The blonde replied wiping a tear from her eye.

"It's September. Halloween is over a month away." The other girl grumbled getting out of bed.

Molly just put her arms behind head and relaxed on her pillow. "What can I say? My parents own a haunted house. I get into the spirit a little early."

"I still can't believe you're parents own the Red Tent." In addition to choreographing and teaching guitar, Molly's parents also owned, and ran, The Red Tent. It was a locally famous Halloween attraction. What set it apart, other than being really scary, was that they incorporated dance, music, and other performance art into scares. One of the most coveted positions, for dancers at least, was a part as a blood dancer. You could audition for one in high school but every year she had always been too busy. This year, however, was different.

"Speaking of which…" Molly said climbing down from her bunk and heading over to her backpack. "I brought you one of these." Molly pulled out an audition form and handed it to Tea.

"Thanks. Don't you need to audition?" She asked noticing there was only one.

Molly just shook her head. "This'll be my 5th year. I don't need to. I have seniority. I'll still be at the auditions though. I'm assisting."

"Oh" Tea fidgeted with the paper in her hand. She wasn't as hostile toward Molly as she had been on the first day. In fact she was starting to grow fond of her new roommate. But she still felt a pang of jealousy when Molly brought up her dance experience.

You don't need to be nervous." Molly said taking her roommate's discomfort for worry. "I'm sure you'll get it. Then we could go to practices and shows together. It'll be fun."

"Yeah" The brunette replied. "Fun."

[-]

"Yuge, you'll never guess what I got when I visited Serenity this weekend." Joey burst into the door of Yugi and Marik's room. Yugi was rushing to get his backpack together while Marik was busy taking notes from his Psychology book.

"I'd love to find out Joey but I'm going to be late for class." Yugi slung his backpack over his shoulders and ran out the door. "I'll see you later Joey."

"Oh, all right…Marik! You'll never guess what I got."

"What is it Joey?" Marik asked welcoming the distraction. He didn't mind if Joey broke his concentration. All it meant was that he was slowly but surely being accepted by Yugi's friends.

"Well, I just got a super rare card. Check it out." Joey said handing the card to Marik and smiling proudly. "It may have cost me a card or two but I'd say it was worth it."

Marik carefully studied the card carefully then held it up to the light. "I'm sorry Joey, this card is a fake."

"Fake? What do you mean fake?"

"Fake as in fake; it's a forgery. In fact…" Marik trailed off rubbing the paper. "This is one of mine. That's weird I thought I got them all out of circulation."

Joey let his shoulders slump down in disappointment. "You mean I got cheated?"

Marik nodded. "I would get my cards back if I were you, Joey."

"But I don't even know the guy I traded with…" Joey sighed plopping down on Yugi's bed. Marik just turned back to the card and inspected it. He had gotten all of his forgeries back and destroyed about the same time he disband the rare hunter. He made sure of it. So where did this come from?

[-]

A few days later, Tea was on a stage with 15 or 20 other hopefuls. Their ages ranged from 14 to 25 and, from what Tea had seen, their styles were even more diverse…and this was only the girls' audition. But among the other dancers on stage, Molly was nowhere to be found.

She had driven with Molly down to Dice Beach. It had been a fun ride. They cranked up the radio and sang along. Their conversation at times made Tea laugh so hard she got nervous about watching the road. She was definitely beginning to think of Molly as a friend instead of just a roommate.

"Ok, ladies…" Molly called stepping out of the wings. All the other dancers turned their attention to her. Tea tugged insecurely at her plain black leotard and shorts. Even though she wasn't auditioning, Molly would definitely have gained more attention in her bright yellow crop top and black metallic leggings.

"I'm glad to see such a nice turn out but unfortunately we only have seven spots open. Now, the performances are all improvisational dance and a large portion of what you'll be doing is floor work. At the practices, what we'll be doing is working on floor work and improving improv skills. Here, I will be leading you in several moves that you will present to the judges and then you will be asked to improvise to a song for 30 seconds. Let's get started."

From that point on, the audition went pretty well from Tea's perspective. Sure, her floor work wasn't the strongest but she thought she made up for that with her improvised number. When Molly took the results from the judges and approached the stage to read the list, she was more than confident her number would be on it. Proudly, the brunette dancer adjusted the number five pinned to her chest and sat in the front row.

"Alright, I have the results." Molly began nervously. "Now if you are not on this list, don't worry. It does not necessarily mean you are a bad dancer. Maybe you did great at, say your turns, but still strong floor work is what we are looking for. I will read some numbers at the end of the list. If your number is called, you are not a blood dancer but we would like you to still participate in a different part." Molly swallowed before reading the list. "Ok, and the blood dancers are numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, and 16. Numbers 2, 5, 15, and 17 please come see me for your parts. Thank you all for coming, I hope to see you all next year."

Tea barely kept her cool as she got her part, an acrobat, and walked out to the car. As she stormed out, she heard Molly calling after her.

"Tea, wait! You're my ride, remember?"

Tea whirled around, rage flickering in her blue eyes. "Oh I remember. I guess you've forgotten how you betrayed me in there, though."

"Betrayed you?" the other girl asked, stunned. "Tea, I know you must be disappointed but…"

"Disappointed? I'm furious at you, Molly! Was this your plan? Make me audition just so you could show me up?"

"Tea, I wasn't even judging. I'm sorry. If it was up to me, you would have gotten a spot. But you still have a dance part…" Molly tried weakly. She knew nothing she could say would make Tea feel any better now.

"Yeah, thanks a lot for your pity." Tea snapped. "If you thought I was so great, why didn't you tell the judges? I'm sure you have pull with them being the owners' daughter and all."

Molly felt a lump form in her throat. "That wouldn't be fair." She said quietly.

"Oh don't talk to me about fair little miss seniority. Would you even have those four years under your belt if it weren't for your parents?" She saw the sting of her words hit the other girl but she could care less at the moment.

"I tried out, just like everyone else." Molly replied masking her hurt. She looked down knowing how hollow those words sounded.

"Please, like you're like everyone else. What do you think the judges thought when they saw your name on their rosters? I'm sure that they recognized it from their paychecks. They probably would have gotten fired if they didn't take you."

The blonde girl looked up at Tea, her green eyes filled with hurt that she could no longer mask. "My parents aren't like that." She retorted, a touch of anger in her words.

"Yeah and I'm sure your parents would have been fine if you hadn't made it. Face it Molly, no one is that impartial."

"Tea, can we please talk about this calmly on the ride back?" Molly asked with pleading eyes.

Tea crossed her arms and turned away. Molly quickly followed. As she opened the passenger side door, she noticed a small, brown rectangle on the ground. She picked it up realizing it was a duel monsters card. It seemed strange to her. If she learned one thing about duel monsters from Joey, Yugi, and Marik, it was how protective duelists were about their decks.

"What are you waiting for?" Tea snarled from the driver's seat. Still holding the card, Molly climbed in and shut the door. They drove in complete silence for the next 23 minutes.

[-]

The tension did not end just at the car. It was late by the time they arrived on campus. When they got back to their dorm, Tea went straight to their room. Molly followed close behind.

"Come on, Tea. At least let me explain why I think you got the part you got." The blonde pleaded as she threw her keys on her desk. "It might make you feel better."

"Molly…" Tea said with barely controlled calm. "I need to cool off and can't do it with you here." She closed her eyes, hoping Molly would get the hint. She had spent the half the car ride going over the scene in the parking lot. While part of her was still hurt, another part was disgusted with herself for flying off the handle like that. Still, hurt and angry thoughts swirled in her head and having to look Molly was not going to help. "Can you just, find somewhere else to sleep tonight?"

Molly just stared back at Tea, unsure of what to do. Did she want to be kicked out of her own room? No. But, then again, she figured anything might be better than this gut-wrenching tension. "I'm just not sure…"

"Geez Molly, don't you get it?" Tea cried, her emotions finally exploding. "I need to get over this and there's no way I am ever going to feel better if I have you standing there just reminding me of everything that happened!"

Surprisingly to Tea, Molly gathered her things and left without another word. The brunette girl sat back on her bed and stared at her roommate's empty bed_. I'm treating her like dirt…_ she thought regretfully to herself.

[-]

A knock at the door woke both Yugi and Marik. Both boys looked at each other and the door in confusion.

"Were you expecting company?" Marik asked dryly. Still half asleep, Yugi rubbed his eyes and mumbled something unintelligible. After a few seconds of sleepily stalling, Marik rolled out of bed and answered the door.

When he opened the door, he saw Molly standing there. She held her comforter and pillow in her arms, her face peeking out from behind the stack. "Can I sleep on your floor?"

Marik nodded and let her in. He, and Yugi being a gentleman, offered her their beds but she turned them both down. Soon, everyone went back to sleep. Marik however was awoken again by the sound of Molly's soft voice. She only spoke in a low whisper, if that. It didn't take long for him to figure out she was on the phone with her mom.

"I know this going to sound random but, you had nothing to do with me getting any of my parts, right? ... No, none in particular…ok, fine, I meant the blood dancer part. You know, from the first time I tried out…I just want to make sure the parts that I got are really the parts that I got."

"Molly Bree Dillon…" her mother said firmly in a light Irish accent. "Are you insinuating that I would give someone a part if they weren't up to it?" Molly could practically hear the smirk through the phone. "You got that part, and every other part you got, because you work hard on your dancing and it shows. You've earned every one of them and don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise."

Molly smiled, somewhat reassured. "Thanks mom…It's late, I should go…no, I'm not up this late every night…ok…love you too…goodnight." She hung up and leaned against Marik's night stand. Marik sympathetically reached down to stroke her hair.

"Are you ok?" he asked concerned.

Molly smiled and laid her hand on his. "Marik, sometimes I think you're my only friend here."

"No, that's not true. Didn't Joey pledge his undying allegiance to you on the first day?" the boy joked. "And what happened to Tea? Aren't you two getting along?"

The blonde girl just sighed. "I don't know about that anymore. Tea didn't get the part tonight and, since I was assisting with the audition, she thinks I had something to do with it."

"Why would she think that?"

"She's just upset." Molly said shaking her head. "I know what it's like. They say you shouldn't take rejection personally but when you put so much of yourself into your dance, it's hard not to…"

Marik stayed quiet. He wasn't that great at coming up with comforting words. He was available to listen, though. And right now it seemed like that's all she needed.

"I know why she got her part, too. And I think it might make her feel better."

Marik looked at her confused. "Wait, I thought you said she didn't get the part."

Molly shook her head. "She didn't get the blood dancer part. She did get a part as an acrobat though." Seeing him get even more confused, she chuckled and started to explain. "There's a reason there are acrobats and blood dancers in a haunted house."

"Oh, is there?" he asked sarcastically. "Would you like to share it?"

"There's a story. You see, when you first go in, there's a circus going on but it's a creepy circus. At the end of the creepy circus part you find out that it's just a cover for a satanic cult that's going to sacrifice the audience to the devil." She laughed when she saw Marik look back at her astonished. "I know how crazy it sounds but it's supposed to scare you."

Marik started to laugh with her. "And the audience escapes in the end, right?"

"Well, you'll just have to come and find out." She replied with a smirk. Their laughter soon died away. Molly thought about how she talked with Tea about going to practices and performances together. She imagined that they would laugh and talk like they had done earlier that day…and maybe from there she would have some true friends.

Sure, she'd had friends in high school, but at a competitive environment like at ACPA, there was always the chance that the bond would break. Someone would get beat out for a part, or someone would be pursued by a professional company, and jealousy would get in the way of friendship. She watched the way Tea's friends interacted. They could hang out together and not have that underlain tension of jealousy. There was no insecurity or fear that the friendship could end at any minute. Their bond was unbreakable.

Marik watched her deep in thought. He knew what she was thinking. It was one of the things they had in common. They both looked to Yugi and the others for friendship, and with good reason too. The bond in that group was special. Marik shuddered at memories of Battle City. He had learned the hard way that no one could intrude on their bond of friendship. Now that he had changed, he wanted so badly to be a part of it. His thoughts turned back to Molly and he smiled. They were forming a bond of their own. While they both longed to be a part of the bond of their potential friends, in the meantime they still had each other.

Coming out of her thoughts, Molly opened her drawstring bag and took out the card she found earlier.

"What's that?" Marik asked. Sure, he knew what it was but he also knew Molly didn't play duel monsters, let alone have any card.

"I found this today." She replied handing him the card. "I figured one of you guys could give it a good home."

Marik accepted it but upon further inspection he found that this too was a forgery. Furthermore, it was made by the same process he used to use. It was only two cards… he told himself. It could easily be brushed off as a coincidence but he couldn't stop the nagging feeling in his stomach. Either he had missed a few cards when he was seeking them out, or the rare hunters had reassembled.

[-]

Joey opened a pack of cookies and put the box between him and Tea. The both reached in and took one before they started talking.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" The blonde boy asked shoving the whole thing in his mouth.

Tea shook her head and looked down. "I'm just feeling a little down and I figured I could use some Joey time."

"Well then you came to the right place. Is this an 'I just watched a sad movie' kind of down an 'I'm questioning my entire existence' type of down?"

"I don't know about either of those, Joey. It's just that since I've been here, I've been feeling like I'm only second best." Tea said letting her voice trail off. She specifically chose Joey for this conversation. She wanted to know how Joey could never get jealous of Yugi's dueling skills.

Joey looked back at her, his eyes smiling as always. "'There ain't nothing wrong with coming in second." He replied shaking his head. "You may not have noticed, but Yugi's a little better of a duelist than me."

"But how do you keep it from bothering you?" She asked eagerly.

"Simple, it doesn't bother me because I don't worry about it. I know I'll keep getting better and if I get good enough to reach the top I will. I'm not going to let it take over my life though. I mean take Kaiba for example." He began, referencing Yugi's overachieving rival. "He's gotten mobile phones, a million-hour work week, and no frickin' personality…and why? Because he spends too much time making sure he's always on top. Just think what Molly must have sacrificed for her dance."

Tea looked up at Joey intently. The goofy boy could be surprisingly wise if he wanted. "She once told me she only went to one dance in high school and didn't even have a social life outside the studio…"

"You see? She missed great experiences, experiences that you had, because she was dancing and being the best was her result. Besides, why would I want to miss out on perfectly good friendships by trying to one-up Yugi? Now, that would be a loss."

Tea thought about Joey's words. She didn't hate Molly. In fact she'd grown fond of her goofy roommate. If she kept up her jealousy, would she really miss out on a friendship with Molly?

[-]

After talking to Joey, Tea felt better. A lot of what he said made a lot of sense. She met up with Molly later that day to talk. They got coffee and found a table outside.

"Molly, I want to apologize for yesterday."

"No worries." The girl replied with a half-smile. "It's not like I've never been rejected before. It can be devastating when you're as passionate as we are. I mean when you put that much of yourself on the stage…"

"…it's like they're rejecting you instead of your skills." Tea blinked back at her. She was surprised they were on the same page.

"I can imagine, though, why you got a different part and I think you might like the reason." Molly started. The brunette took a breath in anticipation. "It's your lines. You're tall so you have amazing lines and that's what they look for in an acrobat."

Tea smiled. She never thought that the extra part could be a compliment. "You know Molly, I just had a thought. We should never expect to get the same parts."

The blonde girl looked at her roommate quizzically. "Why's that?"

"We have completely different styles. Haven't you noticed? You're a power dancer. You always make sure you get air on your leaps and your floor-work is all strength and flexibility based."

Molly nodded. "And you have a more refined style. You look really elegant when you dance and you make sure every toe is in place. That's why you have such great lines."

Tea leaned back in her chair smiling_. Well,_ she thought _looks like I found my female friend. _

[-]

A month later on Halloween night, the whole group went down to Dice Beach to see the performance. They purposely bought tickets for the last group of the night so that they could all go out afterward.

They entered the tent with the rest of the audience. They stood on a slightly sloped area behind a railing. The area on the other side of the railing was made to look like a creepy version of a circus. Eerie circus music started playing and the performers came out. There were clowns, jugglers, and even a ring leader. The acrobats though, were clearly the main attraction of this part. Each one wore a black and red diamond-patterned unitard and moved in perfect sync with one another. They did lay-outs, extensions, and splits all while dancing with matching hoops. Yugi spotted Tea in the middle and found he couldn't take his eyes off her.

When their performance ended, the ring master came to the center holding a torch. He announced plans to send the audience to hell and blew fire at the crowd. A small group of deranged clowns with chain saws chased everyone through a curtain that lead to a dark room.

The room was empty and large enough to hold the crowd. All was quiet until a loud smack came from overhead. Everyone looked up startled, finding the source of a noise. A girl had fallen from the ceiling and landed on a thick layer of fake-blood-covered cellophane suspended high above the audience. As some creepy music started, second girl, who Marik immediately recognized as Molly, ran in from the side and slid on the red liquid. More dancers came in, but he never lost sight of her.

[-]

The whole group all went out together after the show. They drove around for a while looking for a place that was open. Finally, they found a diner that was still open. They all sat around a horseshoe-shaped table having small separate conversations with each other. It was Joey who got everyone's attention.

"Guys, I'd just like to say that even though it's only been two months, you guys are making this a great year. I don't think I could survive living with a stiff like Kaiba if it weren't for you."

"Geez, someone's feeling mushy tonight." Duke teased.

"No, Joey's right." Yugi said raising his glass. "I'd like to propose a toast to you guys, my friends."

Everyone raised their glasses, their cheerful voices mending together. The only two glasses that remained on the table belonged to Molly and Marik. The two looked across the table at each other, both wondering if he meant to include them.

"Guys, what's the hold up?" Tristan asked looking the glasses on the table. "Aren't you our friends?"

Molly nervously drew a line in the condensation on her glass. "That's kind of what we were wondering…" She said softly.

"Molly, are you serious?" Tea asked with a smile still on her face.

"Of course you're our friends." Bakura said quietly.

"Raise your glasses." Yugi said. He was speaking to both of them but mostly to Marik who still looked unsure. "You're one of us now."

Both blondes smiled at each other and raised their glasses.

"To best friends!" Yugi said, starting the toast.

"To best friends!"

_Click._


	4. Mau

Chapter 4

"You're voice reminds me of rice crispy treats." Molly said to her friend Marik without looking up from her notes. Her voice had broken the silence and concentration in the room. They were in her room, along with Tea and Yugi. All were trying to concentrate on their least favorite, but unfortunately required, course, economics.

Marik looked up, confused, from the book on the desk he was at. "What?" was the only response he could think of. Tea and Yugi looked up too, curious as to what Molly meant by her comment.

"Yeah, it's sweet and it crackles…" she said, a little embarrassed, "like rice crispy treats."

Tea set aside her books, got up from her desk, and went over to the wire shelves where they kept the snacks.

"What are you doing?" asked Yugi, who was sitting on the floor next to the beds.

Tea continued to look through the snacks. "Molly made me hungry for some rice crispy treats and I think we're due for a break anyway."

Marik set aside his books too, welcoming the break. None of them could concentrate on economics for very long. Just hearing the word "fiscal" made his eyes glaze over. He didn't mind math. He could handle math. But throw statistics and products (or anything else that reminded him of a stuffy office and a business suit) into the mix and it made his eyes hurt.

Yugi placed his notebook in his book and shut it. "Sounds like a plan." Even he couldn't keep his eyes focused on game theory for one more second…and he was the king of games! "What should we do now?"

Molly smiled and pushed herself out of the middle-spilt she was in. "Hey Tea, let's teach them Mau."

"Oh yeah!" she agreed while swiping a deck of playing cards off her nightstand.

The four of them gathered on the floor. "What's Mau?" Yugi asked, always happy to learn a new game.

"Tea and I play it with the other dancers during breaks. It's so fun." Molly replied.

Tea just shushed them and shuffled the cards. "Just remember, observation is key."

[-]

"Snoopy fly…"

-Tap-

-Two taps-

"Hail to the queen…"

"What are you guys doing?"

The group of four looked up to see Joey with a curious look in his eyes. He hovered over them at the cafeteria table, holding his book bag over one shoulder.

"Point of order" Tea called setting down her cards. "We're playing Mau."

"What's that, a new game?" Joey asked setting his book bag on the ground. "Can I play?"

Marik took a card from the deck and set it in front of Molly. "You forgot to put your cards down." He turned back to Joey. "Sure, we can deal you in next game. This one looks almost over."

"End point of order." Everyone picked their cards up.

-Tap-

"Mau"

Everyone threw in their cards as Yugi won, again. Yugi took them and started shuffling.

"So, how do you play this?"

Yugi just looked at the other players and smiled. "Observation is key."

[-]

It wasn't long before the entire group was playing Mau and quickly became the group's second favorite game, behind Duel Monsters of course.

Between classes one day, the boys all sat at a table in the café and played.

"Serenity Wheeler" Tristan said as he put down the 3 of clubs.

"Point of order." Yugi called. "Tristan, you guys said you weren't going to do this."

"Hey, it's my turn to make up a rule and I can make up anyone I want."

Duke jumped in to defend. "The rule-rules are supposed to screw people. Just let him do it."

"But do you need to remind me of your crush on my baby sister while doing it?" Joey asked annoyed.

"I agree with Yugi." Bakura said. "He'll tell us when he wants to tell us."

Marik's eyes darted back and forth between his friends. "What are you talking about?" He got the feeling they were talking about him.

Yugi rolled his eyes. "They're trying to get you to admit you like…"

"Like?" Duke interrupted. "Yugi, we're not in the fourth grade." He turned to face Marik. "Look, we all know you're into Molly so just go for it all ready. This 'we're friends' crap is getting old." He was about to finish with a "and that goes double for you, Yugi" referring to Tea, but Marik interrupted him.

"What the hell gave you that idea, Duke?" He said leaning on the table. "We really are friends."

"And that's all?" Duke scoffed. "Prove it."

"Why do you care?"

"'Cause we do." Joey answered. "It's not like we have a steak in a poll or anything." Tristan hit him on the arm and shushed him.

Marik crossed his arms and looked at Duke in a challenging manner. "Fine, I'll prove it." The other boys, except Yugi and Bakura, exchanged mischievous grins.

"Ok hot-shot…" Joey began. "What does her hair smell like?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Just answer it."

Marik hesitated a few minutes before answering. "Grapefruit, why does it matter?"

"What matters is that you know." Duke said smirking. "Tristan and I are friends. I don't know what his hair smells like."

"Whatever. Give me another one."

"Ok, I got one." Tristan offered. "On October 18th you and Molly went to the movies on what you claimed was not a date?"

Marik just stared back at him suspiciously. "Why do you know the exact day?"

"That's not the point. Now, you drove her on your motorcycle, a vehicle on which the passenger must ride in the back and hold onto the driver. For how long after the drive did you feel her arms on you afterward?"

Marik laid an arm across his stomach. Admittedly, he felt her arms for a while afterword but there was no way he was going to tell them.

"A few more seconds and we'll take your silence as a yes…" Joey warned. But Marik couldn't think of a good enough answer. "Time's up!" the blonde boy called.

Duke leaned in and smirked. "Have you ever thought about what it'd be like?"

"Well, that sounds quite personal, Duke" Bakura said blushing.

Marik cocked an eyebrow. "That depends on what 'it' is."

"It can be anything from a date to all the way." Duke smirked. "That doesn't matter now, though. You just admitted to thinking of some form of 'it'."

"Can we just get back to the game?" Marik asked. "Yugi please end the point of order."

"Fine" Tristan said with a smirk. "But I think it's your turn and I think you can guess what rule I just set is."

"End point of order."

Marik picked up his cards again. He didn't have any clubs but he did have a three, the 3 of hearts to be exact. Great… he thought sarcastically how appropriate. He rolled his lavender eyes as he slapped the card down.

The other boys all looked at him expectedly. Are you going follow the rule? Their eyes seemed to say. No he glared back. Joey shrugged and passed him a card.

[-]

"Oh no! Say it ain't so!" Joey exclaimed pointing at a card on the sidewalk. The boys all screeched to a halt at Joey's mini freak out.

"Not another one." Duke said as he picked up the duel monsters card and handed it to Marik. "Is it…?"

"Yeah, it's fake." Marik sighed and put the card in his pocket. He didn't have to explain that it was the rare hunters'.

"How many is that now?" Bakura asked.

Marik shrugged and shook his head. "God, I think I almost have enough for a whole deck now."

When he got back to his room, he wrote the date on the back and threw it in the drawer of his nightstand.

"What have you been doing with those cards?" Yugi asked, closing the door behind him.

Marik gestured toward the drawer full of forged duel monsters cards. "I'm trying to keep track of them. I feel like that's all I can do."

Ever since Joey brought back that fake card, Marik had been finding even more. It started as once or twice every couple of weeks then gradually increased. By now, he had started finding at least one card a day. Somewhere around the twentieth card, he decided the problem was getting too big to ignore and his friends agreed. Marik and Yugi contacted Pegasus about the forgeries being made and he replied that he would get his people right on it. They even tried tracking down the man who traded with Joey. However, they all came up with nothing. "I don't know what more I can do. All I have to go on are these randomly appearing cards."

"I'm out of ideas too." Yugi said. "I even asked the others if they had ideas. I mean everyone knows about this except..."

Marik rolled his eyes. "Except..."

Yugi looked at his roommate nervously. "Well, Molly."

"What is everyone's obsession with Molly?" Marik cried while slamming the drawer closed.

"I honestly don't know why those guys are so interested all of a sudden." Yugi started. "I have seen you with her though and I thought..."

"It'd be too complicated." Marik snapped.

Yugi defensively took a step back. "It can't be that complicated."

"Ok, hypothetically, let's say I was interested in this girl I happen to be friends with." Marik answered. "Let's say she happens to be the only one of my friends who didn't know me during Battle City. Let's say she becomes my girlfriend. I wouldn't want to keep such a huge part of my life secret from her but at the same time, I don't want her to know what I was like back then. If she ever found out who I was or what I did..."

"You know we forgave you for that, right?" Yugi asked, coming closer to the boy. Marik nodded and let his friend continue. "Besides, you'd have to tell hypothetical girl eventually, even if you never went on a single date; especially if that crazy card thing gets worse." Yugi felt his stomach dip for a second. He had a feeling that Rare Hunters would eventually get much worse than the occasional fake card and he knew Marik felt that as well.

Marik nodded again. "I know keeping secrets from your friend is not much better than keeping secrets from your girlfriend. I just want to put off telling her as much as possible... I don't want to lose her." He said the last part in his quietest voice possible in hopes Yugi wouldn't hear. He felt the shorter boy reassuringly put a hand on his arm.

"I don't know about losing her, but you can never be that close, as friends or anything else, if you keep such a huge secret from her."

Marik let himself smile a little. He liked the way Yugi comforted people. He never gave you false hopes but somehow you always walked away feeling like everything would be alright. When Marik looked up, he saw Yugi across the room already about to start his homework. "Yugi..." the blonde boy spoke up. "Do I tell you enough how grateful I am for your forgiveness and that you now see me as a friend?" Marik knew Yugi wasn't the type to expect anything for his kindness but he felt Yugi deserved it.

"Don't worry about it." Yugi replied as expected.

"And Yugi..." Marik continued. "Why do you care so much about my relationship with Molly?"

The spiky haired boy turned around and smiled. "That's simple. I'd never want to see one of my best friends make himself unhappy."

[-]

Molly brushed her hair while getting ready for bed. She turned away from the mirror and found Tea smiling at her strangely. To Molly, it looked like her friend had a either a secret or a plan.

"What is it?" She asked putting down the brush.

"Nothing, it's just…you know Carrie from Jazz class?"

Molly nodded suspiciously. "Yes, I know Carrie."

"Well, she saw you with Marik the other day and she asked me if he was your boyfriend." The brunette said as casually as possible. "I told her he wasn't, but do you want to know what she said after that?"

"What?"

"She said it was a shame because you looked so cute together." Tea answered.

Molly put the brush down started climbing into her bunk. "Cute, huh?"

"Yeah, have you ever thought about that?" the other girl asked.

"I don't know." Molly replied. She was glad Tea couldn't see the smile forming on her face. "We do have a lot of fun together and he is really sweet..."

Tea peaked out from the bottom bunk with a grin on her face. "So, you have thought about it."

Molly rolled her green eyes and turned over in her bed. "Let's just go to sleep."

[-]

"Mr. Kaiba, there are some visitors here to see you." The voice came in over the intercom.

"What?" Kaiba exclaimed, pressing down on the intercom button. "Who said you could let them in?" He was very busy working on an updated version of the duel disk and had asked specifically not to be disturbed.

"I told him to let them in, big brother." Mokuba said, getting off the couch and heading toward the office's door.

"Why, Mokuba?" He asked, surprised. Mokuba knew how busy he was. "You know I don't want to see anybody."

"I think you'll feel differently when you see who it is." Mokuba answered. He opened the door and let in Joey, Yugi, and Marik.

"What is it this time, Yugi?" Kaiba asked, completely skipping over the greetings. "Let me guess. Ancient spirits? Dragons? Evil Leprechauns?"

"We do need your help, but it's nothing like what you just said." Yugi answered. "We've been finding a lot of forged cards lately, and we need help finding the culprit."

"And would it kill you to say hello?" Joey threw in.

"Wow, a problem that doesn't involve some supernatural bull. I'm shocked." Kaiba responded, ignoring Joey's comment. "But I'm going to have to say no. If these people are pathetic enough to cheat, it sucks for them, but it's none of my business.

"Please, Kaiba. We have reason to believe the people making these forgeries have something bigger in mind." Yugi argued.

"Bigger, like how?" Mokuba asked, genuinely concerned.

"We believe the Rare Hunters have returned." Marik finally spoke up. "We believe the forgeries are only part of a revenge plot against me."

"Shouldn't you be in Egypt?" Kaiba asked, abruptly. "And if the Rare Hunters are after you, why are you dragging other people into this?"

"I know for a fact that the Rare Hunters are not above hurting innocent people to get to me." Marik responded firmly. "There are more lives at stake than just mine, Kaiba."

Kaiba folded his hands on his desk and thought for a moment. "I still don't know what you want me to do or why I should do anything."

"We were thinking your duel disks probably had some way to tell if the cards were fake. And that you could probably do some crazy computer thing that let you know when a fake card was played." Joey reasoned.

"I could program the satellites to alert me if a forged card was played." Kaiba answered. "But why should I waste my time looking for fake cards that may or may not be played? I have a company to run, you know."

"Look, if the Rare Hunters can forge any card they want, what's stopping them from forging a Blue Eyes White Dragon?" This caught Kaiba's attention. "I know first-hand how you react when someone uses a real Blue Eyes against you." Joey continued. "I wonder how you'd react if someone were to use a fake Blue Eyes against you."

Kaiba thought about this for a moment. "Fine." He finally relented. "I'll program the satellites to alert me of all forgeries of the type the Rare Hunters are using, and I'll alert you as soon as I find one, but after that it's all in your hands, do you understand?"

They thanked him and Marik told him what type of card to look out for. Despite all this, they did not feel they accomplished much. Though Kaiba agreed to help, they still left feeling less than reassured.

[-]

The next Wednesday night, like every Wednesday, the group gathers in the dorm lounge and had game night. The started doing this during October when Molly and Tea were doing the Halloween show and Wednesday was the only day when the two didn't have a practice or performance. Sometimes some of the guys would play Duel Monsters and the rest watched but they also played games that they could all play together. Tonight, they all decided to play a big game of Mau.

Molly and Marik were the last ones left awake. They switched to Spit when it came down to the two of them. Eventually they decided it was time for bed too.

"You want to hear something weird?" Marik asked gathering his cards and handing them to Molly.

"Always." She replied, putting the deck back in the box.

"Well..." He cleared his throat. "It seems all our friends think you and I should...um...go out...together." Molly started to laugh. Crap, he thought was she laughing at me or our friends.

"They all joke about it." She said with laughter still in her voice. "But you know if we really they'd crap their pants."

Marik laughed with her but looked down at his hands. He took her response as a rejection.

"So why don't we?"

Marik looked up at her surprised. "For our friends?"

"I was kind of hoping we'd leave them at home." Molly said smiling. "I know I can be kind of a ball-buster so you can do the actual ask-out if you want."

"Oh, alright." He said wiping his sweaty palms on his pants. "Molly, would you like to go out with me?"

"I'd love to."

They looked at each other, the only sound in the room being Molly nervously tapping the card box on the table. Marik wiped his palms for the second time in under a minute.

"So, now what do we do?" he asked.

Molly thought for a second. "Oh, I know." She walked over to Marik and gave him a warm hug. He put his arms around her and smelled her hair - grapefruit, as always. "So, Friday?" She purred.

"Yes."

When they pulled away, both of them were blushing. "Ok, well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Marik finally said.

"Right. Good night." Molly gave him one last smile and went. Marik smiled as she walked away. Then he glanced out the window his smile disappeared. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Whatever he saw before was gone. It's just my imagination he told himself I'm just being paranoid. But could have sworn he saw rare hunter.

[-]

"Ok guys, I hung back after the last game to see what Molly and Marik would do, and he finally asked her out." Duke announced. He was holding court in the hall on their floor. Joey, Tristan, Bakura, and a few other guys from their floor were gathered around, listening intently. "So…" He continued, pulling a massive list out from his back pocket. "…who had November 15th?"

Having heard the commotion going on outside, Yugi stepped out of his room to investigate. "What's going on here?" He asked, seeing the crowd.

"Marik asked Molly out, and we're just settling a few bets." Joey answered, before receiving a jab in the ribs from Tristan.

"Bets?" Yugi exclaimed. "You guys were betting on your friend's love life?"

"Hey, we all figured it would happen anyway, we might as well have made some money off of it." Duke answered, returning to his list. "Ok, anyone know TG is?"

Yugi was about to give Duke a lecture about respecting a friend's privacy, but was distracted when he saw Tea run up from the lower floor. "It happened." She huffed, a bit out of breath. "Molly just came in our room and told me."

"We know." Duke answered, still looking at the list. "TG… Tea, did you have November 15th?"

"I did. So I won?" She asked happily. Duke nodded and handed her the money she won.

"Tea, you were in on this too?" Yugi asked, a bit shocked.

"Well, yeah…" She answered, embarrassed. "I needed money for new Pointe shoes."

"So you bet on your friends?" Yugi asked. "I thought you were better than that."

Tea was about to respond to that, but she was interrupted by a backwards-cap-wearing boy from their dorm. "Hold on, I had the 15th too." He shouted.

"No you didn't Kenny. You had the 25th and you know it." Duke retorted.

As the boys in the hall began to squabble, Yugi could only shake his head and go back to his room.


	5. Monster Reborn

Chapter 5

Marik walked down the concrete footpath toward the campus auditorium. It was kind of out of the way, on the edge of the campus surrounded by trees. Despite the bright, sunny day, the setting gave him an uneasy feeling.

"Hey Marik."

He looked up to see Tea coming out of the building. She smiled and greeted him with a wave. "What are you doing here? Molly said she was meeting up with you later."

"My class ended early so I thought I'd meet her here."

"Ok, well Molly's still inside." She said, pointing to the door. "We're showing our solos today and her name got picked last." She took a drink from her water bottle and headed off in the other direction. "I'm sorry, I got to run. I've got a class to get to."

Marik raised a hand to say goodbye. "That's ok. How did you do?"

"I rocked it." Tea replied proudly. "Ok, see you."

He turned to go inside but a cloaked figure hiding among the trees caught his eye. The first time he'd seen a rare hunter hiding had been back in November. At that time he told himself he was just being paranoid but after multiple sightings, he was sure they were there. They didn't come around half as frequently as the cards, though they gave him more of a chill.

Marik stared the figure down. Every time he'd seen one before, he'd blink and it'd be gone. This time he decided to go after it. Twigs and leaves crunched beneath his feet as he made his way toward the figure. However, it ducked behind the tree before Marik could get there.

"Oh no. Don't you disappear again."

It was too late, though. The rare hunter had vanished, but he left a card in his place. Marik reached down and picked it up. "Monster reborn?" He said curiously. That wasn't a very rare card. In fact, he couldn't think of a duelist who didn't have one in his or her deck. He held it up to the light to make sure it was a counterfeit. It was. "Why would they leave me this card?"

[-]

Inside, Molly was finishing her solo. Natasha Bedingfield's Weightless finished playing as Molly did a tumbling pass. The music stopped and Molly walked up to the edge of the stage where her teacher was.

"Well, what did you think?" She asked.

The teacher looked at her thoughtfully before answering. "It was good Molly, but…" Molly waited nervously. A "but" from Miss Sandra was never good. "…I feel like I've seen it before."

"What do you mean?" She asked. "You didn't like it?"

"It was beautiful Molly, but it doesn't show off your range." Miss Sandra said as Molly sat down and started stretching. "Every dance I've seen from you takes me to the same place and it's always a fun happy place."

"Well, who wouldn't want to go somewhere fun and happy?"

The teacher smiled but looked at her student seriously. "Molly, are you happy all the time?"

The blonde girl crinkled her eyebrows at the question. "Well, nobody can be happy all the time."

"I want to see more than sunshine and rainbows from you, Molly. Show me sadness, anger, fear. Don't be afraid to get dark. I saw you perform at the Red Tent so I know you can do it. I want to know if you can do it on your own. I want you to come up with a new solo portraying a different emotion by next week."

"Yes Miss Sandra." Molly hopped down from the stage and collected her things. Marik was already in the back waiting for her. She greeted him with a smile. "Hey, weren't we going to meet at the café?"

"We were." He replied with a shrug. "But I thought I'd meet you here instead."

Molly threw her arms around his neck while he wrapped his around her waist. "I just have the sweetest boyfriend…"

It was true. It began after that date they went on in November and continued all the way up to now, in February. Our stupid friends were right. Marik thought. They may have been betting on us but they were right.

"Oh…" Miss Sandra remarked while passing them by. The two of them pulled apart. "Now I see why Molly is so happy."

"What did she mean by that?" Marik asked.

Molly shrugged. "Nothing. She thinks my dances are too happy and I need to portray other emotions." She said as they started walking out together. "I need to choreograph a new solo by next week."

As they went outside into the unseasonably warm February day, Molly continued to talk. Marik tried to listen but his eyes darted to the wooded area where the rare hunter had been. He wondered where the man could have gone. The rare hunters had always been quiet and agile but to completely vanish?

"Marik?"

Molly's voice cut through his thoughts. He turned to her and blinked as if he'd just woken up.

"I asked if you were alright." She said concerned.

"Yeah…" he said distantly as he rubbed his eyes. "I'm fine." She just looked at him like she didn't believe him. "So, you need a new dance?"

Molly looked at him a little longer before she answered. "Yes, I need to prepare it fast so I was thinking I should work on it tonight."

"Really?"

The girl's voice got steadily faster as she continued to speak. "Yeah, and I know we were thinking of doing something tonight but I need to start this. I don't even know where to begin or what song to do or…" Marik stopped her with a kiss on the lips.

"That was a nice way of telling me to shut up." She said smiling.

"Don't worry about it. I have something I need to work on too."

Molly clutched his vest and pulled him in closer. "We'll make it up to each other tomorrow then."

Marik held her waist as they kissed again. "Tomorrow it is."

[-]

Yugi came back from dinner to find forged duel monsters cards spread all over his dorm room. Some of the furniture had even been pushed back to make room for the cards. Marik sat on the floor by his bed staring at the even rows.

"Is this what you were doing when you didn't come to dinner?" Yugi asked as he tip-toed across the floor, careful not to mess up the carefully arranged cards. Marik had laid them all out in order by the dates they were found on.

"When I woke up this morning I knew something was going to happen today. I kept looking for something suspicious. Then, when I went to walk Molly back from the auditorium, I saw a rare hunter. Every other time I'd seen one off in the distance but this one was only a few yards away. I tried to approach him but he disappeared. However, he left this where he was standing." Marik held out the card and Yugi took it.

"Monster reborn?" he asked puzzled.

"I believe it's a treat." Marik replied seriously.

"How do you figure that?" The boy asked, more confused.

Marik took back the card and looked at it intently. "I spent all day trying to discover the meaning of the card. Using it, obviously, returns any monster to the field. I took it to mean the rare hunters are officially telling me they are back, which would be redundant given all of the other clues they left. Then, I started thinking of the 'monster' part. Outside the game, a monster is something horrible and threatening, which is why I believe that card is more than a message. It's meant to tell me that the rare hunters are not only back but plan to strike soon. Before this, I assumed the only significance of the cards was to let me know the rare hunters have returned. Now I believe there is more to them."

Yugi took his backpack off his back and sat down on the floor across from Marik. "If that's the case then I'll help you." Marik graciously accepted his help and the two debated where to begin. "Are there any that you've already figured out?" Yugi asked.

Marik held up the Happy Lover card. "This one, of course." Despite the card's cute and non-threatening appearance, it was the one that worried Marik the most; simply for the way it came to be in his possession. It was immediately after his first date with Molly. They were leaving the restaurant when a waiter stopped them. He handed Molly the card and explained that a man inside told him it belonged to her. Molly told him it was a mistake but the waiter insisted that the man pointed them out specifically. Marik ended it by taking it and saying it might have been his. He'd explained the whole story to Yugi that night and the other boy agreed it was even stranger than the other cards. "I'm sure it means they know about Molly."

Yugi nodded solemnly, noting the concern in his friend's eyes. "I can't argue with that." The shorter boy said. He searched his mind for reassuring words but found none. He knew all too well what it was like to worry about what his enemies might do to his loved ones.

The blonde boy put the card down and picked up another card, United We Stand. "This is the card I got from Joey. This also worries me. I believe it is a hint that they know I've made friends with you all as well." Marik cast his eyes downward. "I only hope they don't go after you and the rest to try to get to me."

Yugi nodded his head in agreement. "I know how that feels." He took the card from Marik and looked at it. "I can see why Joey would have been excited if this were real."

"I actually have a real one." Marik said, smiling a little.

"Really?" Yugi asked surprised. He thought back to his duels with Marik's dark side and could not remember the mad man ever using it. "I don't remember that being in your deck."

Memories of Battle City came back to Marik. He shook his head attempting to remove the guilty memories so he could focus. "My dark side changed most of my cards before I got to duel, but this wasn't in my deck then anyway. Back then, my deck was built around Ra and because I don't have him anymore, I had to build a new deck."

Both of them stared at the cards silently. Marik pushed his bangs out of his eyes while Yugi nervously wrung his hands. Battle City was not something either of them liked to talk about.

"We should focus on the problem at hand." Marik suggested after an awkward moment of silence. Yugi nodded in agreement and the two went back to analyzing the cards.

"I know." Yugi said, suddenly getting an idea. "I'll pick a card and you try to remember what else happened that day."

"Sounds like a plan."

Yugi reached down and picked up the Ice Master cards. "You found this on December 7th." He said reading the date written on the back. "Anything happen on that day that might be connected to this card."

"That's easy, it was the first snowfall." The other boy replied, adjusting the way he was sitting.

"Alright." Yugi put down the card and picked up another one. "Plague Wolf, November 28th."

Marik thought for a second before replying. "I think we all rented the _Wolfman_ and watched it together around then…"

"Victoria, January 16th." Yugi said picking up another card. Marik let out a small chuckle. "What is it?" the shorter boy asked, wondering what could possibly be funny about that card.

"Nothing." He replied. "It's just the name Victoria reminded me of the time Molly attempted to explain the plot of Cats to me. Victoria happens to be the name of one of the cats."

"When did she do that?" Yugi asked eyeing the date on the back of the card.

Marik immediately sobered upon hearing the question. "Just a few weeks ago, possibly on that date."

"That's quite an intimate detail." Yugi said thoughtfully. "Marik, do you think…?"

"Yes." He replied solemnly. "These cards are more than just a way to remind me the rare hunters are still here." Marik grabbed a bunch of cards and quickly looked at them and the dates. "Each one has something to do with something that happened that day. With these cards, the rare hunters are telling me just how closely they're watching me."

[-]

Molly haphazardly threw her things in her bag and pulled the drawstrings closed. She felt as if she had just wasted her night. She spent hours in the empty auditorium trying get in touch with her dark side. Nothing she did came out right. She just wasn't feeling the music or the emotion her teacher wanted. Finally, around midnight she decided to call it a night.

She threw her sweat pants over her arm, and made her way up the aisle and into the lobby but something stopped her when she reached the doorway. The second she stepped into the gray-tiled area (you know, not outside but not quite building) she got an eerie feeling. She tried to shake it off but it persisted. This is ridiculous. She thought. You're just a little freaked out because it's late. She walked up to the glass door. As she pressed on it she could almost hear the horror-movie audience screaming 'don't go out there!'

Molly stood in the non-lobby trying to get over this warning feeling she had. But the gut feeling refused to be ignored.

[-]

The rest of the group gathered in Yugi and Marik's room. The all wanted a part in helping to solve the mystery.

"So these guys are basically stalking you?" Tea said, more as an exclamation than a question.

"Yes, and I believe they plan to strike soon, which is why I'm glad you are all here." Marik replied seriously.

"Well, not quite." Bakura pointed out. "Where's Molly?"

"I know exactly where she is, though." The blonde boy said. "She is working on her solo in the dance studios. There are always people around that area and the rare hunters wouldn't be foolish enough to attack with so many witnesses around."

"Actually Marik…" Tea hesitated, not wanting to worry her friend. "She isn't working at the dance studios. She wanted to work in private so she went to the auditorium."

Marik's eyes popped wide open upon hearing this. "What do you mean the auditorium?"

"Dude, what's the big deal?" Joey asked, confused by Marik's outburst.

Marik quickly explained about seeing the rare hunter and finding the card. "No one will be there this late." He exclaimed standing up. "Anything could have happened by now!"

Yugi reassuringly put his hand on Marik's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm sure if something happened to her, we'd know it by now. There'd be no point in them hurting her if you wouldn't know about it."

A cell phone rang, causing everyone to jump. Marik reached into one of the pockets of his cargos and took out his cell phone. "That's her now." He said reading the screen and flipping open the phone. "Hello."

"Hi, I feel really stupid asking this…" Molly said from the other end. "Will you come walk me home? Normally I'm not like this but I have this weird feeling about tonight…"

"Yes." Marik answered, sounding almost relieved that she called. "I'll be right there."

"Thank you so much. You have no idea how dumb I feel just asking you that."

"Don't." He said glancing solemnly at the phone. "Trust me, I want to." She thanked him one last time before he snapped the phone shut.

"What did she say?" Duke asked.

Marik turned to his friends. They all looked at him concerned. "She's fine. She just asked me to walk her home and I'm going."

"Dude, can you say whipped?" Tristan said. Duke punched him for being so stupid.

"She sounded seriously frightened and she doesn't normally act this way…unless birds are concerned but that's beside the point." Marik retorted. "I must go before anything happens."

"Good luck." Tea called as he disappeared into the hall.

[-]

Molly said good bye to Marik and thanked him again before they hung up. She sat down on the non-lobby floor and did a few stretches to pass the time. She was sitting with the bottoms of her feet together and her head down when she heard something bang against the glass door. When her head snapped up, no one was there. A glance at her phone told her it had been about ten minutes since she called Marik.

She picked up her things and started outside. "Marik?" She called into the darkness. "That wasn't funny! I really was freaked out!" It seemed like too cruel a prank for Marik or any of her friends to play, but she guessed it was him. There was no reason she could think of for anyone else to be hanging around the auditorium at that hour.

She let the door close behind her. As it locked shut, she couldn't help imagining that horror-movie audience ranting about how stupid she was for leaving. "Marik?" She called again, hoping for an answer. The only sound that came was the rustling of leaves in the wooded area near by. A gasp escaped her mouth as she suddenly turned in direction of the sound. There was nothing she could see that would make that sound. She turned back and looked down the path again, wondering if she should still wait for Marik.

Suddenly, a thick arm grabbed Molly around the waist and hoisted her in the air. "Master will be pleased we finally have you." He said in a sinister voice.

"What?" she screamed, struggling to pry the man's arm away. Master? What did he mean by that? "Let go!" She threw he elbow back into the man's face, making contact with his nose. He dropped her immediately. She landed on the pavement on her hands and knees.

The man's hand flew up and cupped over his face. "Bitch! You broke my nose!"

"Damn it! Can't you even hold on to a little girl?" a second voice called. Another man, wearing the exact same cloak as the other, stepped seemingly out of nowhere.

Molly picked herself up and tried to get away while they bickered. The first one grabbed her hair and pulled her down. The second one gripped the collar of her jacket and held her up. "Our master's been expecting you, so don't bother putting up a fight."

She kicked wildly and tried to pull his fingers off her jacket. "I don't know your master! Let me go!"

"Oh, it appears our old master hasn't told her about us." He said in a cruel, mocking tone. "How hurtful, after everything we did for him, he could at least mention us."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" She drew one leg up and with a shout, kicked him hard in the chest. She fell to the ground as he coughed, trying to regain his breath.

"See, not so easy, is it?" The first man said, ridiculing the other. His snickering face hardened as he gripped her wrists and pulled her up.

"Just hold her still." The other growled, pulling a syringe out of a pocket in his cloak.

Molly only struggled harder against the man holding her. As she began to pull away, she felt something sharp plunge into her shoulder. First her legs went weak, feeling as if they might collapse beneath her. She fought to stand but soon found herself slumping to the ground. The sensation travelled through the rest of her body. Then her vision went, then her consciousness.

[-]

Marik hurried down the path, hoping his concerns were over nothing. As he turned a corner, a figure jumped down from a near-by tree. It was dressed in a black and white jester costume and smiled evilly at Marik. "What's the hurry, buddy?"

"I know who you are." Marik growled. "You're Arkana's little clown helper."

"Technically speaking, I'm a harlequin." He retorted, almost offended.

"Whatever you are, you're wasting my time!" he cried, pushing past the harlequin.

The harlequin let out an eerie chuckle. "You won't find her there."

Marik froze upon hearing these words. The harlequin only laughed more. "You're already too late. They've taken her. Even if you ran from here as fast as possible, you won't make it in time. You'll waste your energy and find nothing there except for the signs of a struggle."

"No…" Marik breathed nearly inaudibly. He turned sharply toward the harlequin, fury clear in his eyes. "You're lying."

"I assure you, I am telling the truth." An evil grin spread across its painted face. "Now, you can run off to an empty auditorium and no chance of seeing that girl again, or you can stay and listen to how you can save her."

Marik's eyes darted between the harlequin and the path that toward the auditorium. For a moment, he thought he could make it. He'd find her still there, take her back to the dorms, and for the moment, she'd be safe. What if he speaks the truth? He thought I could loose her forever.

"Do you realize you are now wasting both of our time?" The harlequin said, bringing Marik out of his thoughts.

"How can I save her?" He finally asked after a few more moments of contemplation.

The harlequin smiled sinisterly. "All you must do is, meet my Master tomorrow morning. Bring your duel disk and deck. My master will be waiting at the old Checker Theater for you. If I were you, I'd comply with these terms. My master will be in no mood to negotiate." With that, the harlequin disappeared into the trees.

"Wait!" Marik called to the tree top. "If I duel him, will Arkana set her free?"

His question received no response. He watched the tree wearily as he turned away from it. He took off down the path once again, clinging to the slim hope that the harlequin lied, and Molly was really still here.

As the auditorium came into view, he saw no people around. She could still be inside. He thought, but he did not believe it. When he reached the entrance, all he found were Molly's things scattered all over the ground. He found her dance bag sprawled on the pavement. Her purse had obviously been broken, letting a chap stick, a hair brush, and her cell phone spill out. Marik picked up the cell phone, finding a few concerned texts from Tea on the screen. Her wallet had been abandoned nearby, missing the few bucks she had in there. Damn rare hunters, can't even ignore the pettiest of thefts.

"Damn it!" Marik cried in frustration as he threw the empty wallet against the side of the building. It bounced off the wall and landed open, revealing her driver's license. She half-smiled and looked toward her right hand as it pushed her blonde curls out of her face. Marik couldn't help but smile at the picture, remembering seeing it for the first time. She laughed and snatched it away; claiming that the photographer refused to take another one and no one's picture looked good. He retorted that hers did.

Marik picked up the wallet, and gazed at the picture before snapping it shut. It hurt too much to know someone that sweet was in danger because of him. "I won't let them harm you." He vowed to the now-concealed picture. "I'll find you. I'll bring you back."

[-]

"Why would the rare hunters need to know all these details about Marik's life?" Tea asked examining the cards. "It's beyond creepy."

Yugi nodded, straightening up the cards. He filled them in on the discoveries he and Marik had made, as well as Marik's concerns about the rare hunters. "We think they are out for revenge. He thinks they want to know every little detail about his life so they can find ways to torture him with them."

"By the looks of these cards, I'd say they're already doing that." Bakura said looking at the back of one card.

"What do you mean by that?" Joey asked.

"Well, these cards seem to be telling Marik just how frighteningly close they are to him." The soft-spoken Brit replied.

"Marik thinks they're more than that." Yugi piped up. "He thinks they were only doing this to stress him out until they were ready to strike."

At that moment, a smell white envelope slid under the door. The group all looked at it and each other curiously. Yugi picked it up off the ground. He tore it open and many little pieces fluttered to the ground.

"What is it Yuge?" Joey asked.

Yugi wordlessly knelt down and started putting the pieces together. "It's a duel monsters card." He flipped the pieces so they were all face up. He saw the edge of a pink wing, a round blue eye, the boarder of an orange orb, the letters H, P, and L… "It's the happy lover card!" He finally exclaimed.

"There's more…" Bakura said pulling a note out of the envelope. "Oh, my…"

"What does it say?" Tea asked moving closer to Bakura.

Duke took the note and read it aloud. "It says 'This was first. Your friend is next.' What does that mean?"

Yugi's eyes widened. He threw open the door and looked down both ends of the hall. There was no sign of the person who left the note. He took of down the hall, his friends following him.

"Yuge, what's wrong?" Joey called after him.

"Yeah, slow down man!" Tristan added.

Yugi stopped and turned toward his friends. "You guys, don't you see what this means? That card, the happy lover, it was a threat. It means Molly's in danger and so is Marik."

They quickly understood and ran with Yugi all the way to the auditorium. As they ran, Tea shot off a quick text to Molly but got no reply. When they got there, they found Marik gathering Molly's things.

"Marik!" Yugi called as they approached him.

He wiped his eyes before looking up at them. "Yugi, guys, what are you doing here?"

"We were worried and we got this weird note." Tea answered for them.

"What happened here?" Duke asked, observing the chaotic scene created by the rare hunters.

By the way Marik looked at them, they already knew the answer. "It was the rare hunters." He finally choked out. They've taken her.


	6. Restless Night

Chapter 6

Cold, that was the first thing Molly's brain registered as she began to awaken. The air around her felt cold, the ground beneath her felt cold, and the hand caressing her shoulder was definitely the coldest.

She swatted the hand away before opening her eyes to see yet another strange man wearing another of those purple cloaks. The man startled her so much she shot up, banging her head off the top of her cage in the process.

"She's awake!" the man called to someone Molly couldn't see. He stood up and walked out of her line of vision. "Tell the Master."

Molly frantically took in her surroundings. She was in a cage that was just barely tall enough for her to sit up straight and long enough for her to lie down. The room was so dark she could see nothing except the large chair, almost a throne, facing her.

As she looked down at herself she realized she was no longer wearing her jacket, her sweat pants she wore over her shorts were gone (she dropped them during the struggle) and her feet were bare. "Those freaks took my shoes!" She shouted to no one in particular.

A wicked cackle echoed around the room as a response. The cackle got louder and was soon accompanied by the sound of footsteps. The footsteps and the cackle got closer and closer until a pair of shoes came into view. The man wearing the shoes knelt down so that his face could be seen. Well, not exactly. He wore a cloak just like all the others, but a silver mask covered most of his face.

The man said nothing at first, but instead gripped her chin and pulled her face closer to his. Molly pushed against the bars, breaking away from his grasp. After a few more moments of just looking at her, he finally spoke. "Yes, you are the right one. You know, a grainy photograph really doesn't do you justice."

"Are you this master they keep talking about?" she asked harshly.

The man smirked at being called a master. "Why yes, I am their new master, anyway. You, however, may call me Arkana."

"Arkana…" she grumbled, attempting to place the name. "I still have no idea who you are."

"You have no idea why you were brought here, do you?" the mad man asked with a low chuckle. "That is no matter. In fact I think I rather like it that way," he said, standing up once more. "You will not have to know me long, my dear, but I will come to know you very well."

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

Arkana grinned evilly. "It means I will be free of you by tomorrow. In the meantime, you will have some time to reflect."

"Reflect on what?" she asked defensively.

"Your life…" He said, beginning to circle the cage. "…your deepest fears, greatest regrets, worst mistakes…"

"And why would I think of that?"

Arkana chuckled through closed lips. "The power of suggestion, my dear. Now that I placed it in your mind, you will eventually think of it. No matter how much you try to resist, the thought will continue to creep up on you. Especially in here..." He banged on the top of the cage for emphasis. "You will have nothing to do but think, and I will make sure you do." He said gesturing to the throne.

"Don't you have something better to do than watch me think?" She spat back.

"Everything is already prepared," he answered moving toward the throne. "There is nothing left to do but wait."

[-]

The gang walked back to the dorms with a forlorn Marik in tow. Tea took Molly's purse and bag back to their room, but Marik still held her sweat pants as he went to his room. His friends had to talk him into waiting for the morning. They said that not following Arkana's sick rules may end badly for everybody and he knew they were right. Still, when he found the sweat pants haphazardly discarded on a nearby bush, his friends had to practically hold him back.

"It was warm," Tea had said, trying to settle his mind. "She was probably already warm from dancing and you know she doesn't catch a chill easily. She probably never had them on in the first place."

This comforted Marik some, but he still put nothing past the rare hunters. Hell, if his alarm clock didn't go off the next morining he might be inclined to blame them too.

Marik sat on the edge of his bed, hoping to draw comfort from the soft material. He ran his hand over the spray-paint outline of the word 'dance' attempting to focus on anything else but the worries in his mind. What was happening to her now? Was she unconscious? Was she awake? Has she met Arkana? Does she now know everything? Even after his talk with Yugi a few months ago, he still continued to put off telling her of his past. _Maybe if I told her, she wouldn't have been targeted. _He clutched the black fabric in his hands as if he could strangle the guilty thought away.

"Marik?" Yugi asked, standing over him. "Are you alright?"

_Of course not!_ He wanted to snap, but he held his tongue. There was no sense in attacking Yugi, especially not when he was only trying to help. "I just want peace of mind. I never was guaranteed they wouldn't hurt her if I complied with their rules. Even if I was, I don't expect them to play fairly."

"I know exactly how you feel," Yugi nodded. "You know, I dueled Arkana once."

"Of course I do. It was through me you met him," He said bitterly. "When you won, did you take his dark magician?"

"No," Yugi replied. "I never thought to. There were a lot of more important things to think about."

"Like the crazy person chasing you," Marik said looking straight ahead.

"Marik, that's not who you are anymore," Yugi's said firmly.

Marik got up and crossed over to the window. "I know how I was back then. I did horrible things and I deserve to be punished for them…but Molly doesn't deserve to get dragged into this and neither do you guys …Yugi, will you promise me something?"

Yugi nodded. "What's that?"

"That none of you show up tomorrow. I don't want anyone getting hurt because of my past."

[-]

_"Look Perry!" 6- year-old Molly shouted climbing up on top of the monkey bars. _

_"You seem awfully high up!" Her brother shouted back from the ground. His eyes were wide with panic, but they were always like that. The 6-year-old ball of nerves wore the same panic-stricken look he always wore. "Mom said not to go up there. I think you should come down!"_

_"Take a chill pill Pear! What could possibly happen?" The park, as far as she was concerned, was the safest place on earth. It was right across the street from their house. Their mom watched them from the window as she cooked dinner and there were always other kids' parents around. Nothing bad could happen at the park. _

_She giggled as she stood up on the relatively thin beam. The wind blew on her face and through her hair. She put her arms out and began walking toe-to-heel like the tight rope walkers she'd seen at the circus they had just gone to. _

_"I still don't think this is a good idea." Perry, despite technically being the older brother by 14-and-a-half minutes, always played on the safe side. Molly, on the other hand, was adventurous to a fault. She swung too high, ran too fast, and listened too little. _

_These two twins couldn't be further apart. Molly was an eternal optimist while Perry was a persistent pessimist. When they rain clouds rolled in, Perry saw thunder and lightning, while Molly saw puddles to splash in. At the park, Molly would be trying something crazy, while Perry would be on the ground telling her it was a bad idea. _

_Walking her imaginary tight-rope became easier with every step. Perry looked up nervously. "This is easy, Pear!" She shouted. "I bet I can do a cartwheel up here."_

_Perry backed away as if he was going to be made to do it. "That's definitely a bad idea, Moll! Just come down." _

_"I can do it, Perry! It'll be just like in my Acro class," Sure, the beam in her Acro was two inches tall and Miss Jillian spotted, but she figured she could do it on her own. She decided to go for it._

_After laying her hands on the beam, all she remembered were swirling images, landing hard on the ground, and hearing a loud pop. The girl opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by a group of kids with Perry standing slightly in front of them. She sat up and started crying and clutching her shoulder. "Perry, I hurt my shoulder." The kids quickly turned into a bunch of 6-year-old paramedics offering 'medical advice.'_

_"Push it back in!" one shouted. Another actually went to do it, but Molly pushed him away with her uninjured arm. _

_"They're gonna have to cut it off," Another offered. "If you hurt your arm, you're gonna have to get it cut off and get a metal one." This only made Molly cry harder. _

_"Stop it!" Perry cried. "You're scaring her. Why don't you guys just go away?" The only thing that could make his usually timid self show some backbone was defending his sister. _

_The group of kids quickly dispersed. Perry held out a hand to Molly and helped her stand up. "Come on, I'll take you home. Mom will know what to do."_

_"But…then she'll know I climbed up on top."_

_"I know," He said with a sigh. "But if I tell her, she can help you."_

_Molly, unable to give him a hug, gave his hand a squeeze instead. "Thanks Pear." Molly couldn't help smiling despite the tears and pain. Even though she dislocated her shoulder that day, it stuck out in her minds as one of her happiest memories. These twins couldn't be farther apart in personality, but as siblings, they couldn't be closer together. _

"Molly…" Arkana sing-songed as he walked two fingers up her thigh. "Wake up girly…" A smaller hand gripped his wrist. The mad magician looked up to see the now-awake Molly glaring at him. He chuckled as he pulled his hand out of her grasp and back through the bars. "I did not go through all this trouble just to watch you sleep."

"No, you wanted to watch me think, right?" She snapped back.

Arkana looked at her slyly before responding. "You know, there are signs that show when a person's dreaming. They twitch, their eyes move behind their eyelids, and sometimes they even mumble … who is Perry?"

The girl looked away offering no answer. She instinctively clutched the diamond charm that hung around her neck.

"It is no matter how much you tell me. What is important is that you know."

[-]

_"Hey, study nerd!" _

_A pillow playfully hit Marik in the back of the head. He looked up from his books and turned to Molly who sat cross-legged on his bed. "Did you really just throw a pillow at me?" he asked laughing._

_"You want to take a break?" she asked beaming. "Let's go to the café before it closes." _

"I _need to study."_

_"You've studied all night," She retorted "If you learn anymore your head will explode. You want that to happen, huh? You like your head, huh? Cause I do. I don't want your head to explode."_

_"It's nice to know you care about my head," He replied with a smirk. "But really, I have a test tomorrow."_

_Molly got up and took the book off his desk. "All right then, let me help you."_

_"Fine. Ask me something from in there."_

_"Alright," She looked at the notes, her eyebrows crinkling as she looked at the complicated equations. "A 17 ft ladder is leaning against a wall. If the bottom of the ladder is x feet from the wall and the top of the ladder is y feet above the ground, write an equation for the horizontal distance the ladder is from the bottom of the wall as a function of the vertical distance the ladder is above the ground… How come the ladder's against the wall? Is there being work done? Is there a heist going on?"_

_"That's not exactly the point," Marik chuckled. _

_"It's just an incomplete story. The ladder didn't just appear against the wall. There's a story behind that."_

_"Like you can come up with a better one?" he challenged playfully._

_"You bet I can." She said laying the book aside. "If a girl is about 5 foot 2 and her boyfriend is about 6 feet, how far do they have to lean if they want to kiss?" _

_"Well…" He said standing up. "I think we'll need to try that one out." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. Molly wrapped hers around his neck and they moved in for a kiss. _

Marik woke up for the third time in two hours. Dreams and worries made it impossible to get a proper night's sleep. He would close his eyes and a new vision would appear. Sometimes it was a memory of the rare hunters and Battle City. Other times it was a memory of Molly. Sometimes these two things would collide as a nightmare, showing him all the worst possibilities of what could be happening to her.

Restless, he got out of bed and went through his things one last time. He made sure his duel disk was working properly and fully powered. He also went through his deck, preparing strategies. He even went through small things that required no thought, such as making sure he had his motorcycle license in his wallet. Busying himself seemed the only way to keep the worries at bay. There was no way he could win the duel tomorrow if he let his fears fog his mind.

"Marik, are you still up?" Yugi asked stirring.

The blonde boy looked up from whatever he was fiddling with. "I'm sorry Yugi. Did I wake you?"

"That's not important right now," Yugi said sympathetically. "The important thing is that you get some sleep. You need to rest if you're going to win tomorrow."

Marik nodded. "I know, but Yugi, how do you do it?"

"Do what?" he asked confused.

"With all times fate depended on you, how did you stay focused? How did you not crack under the pressure? I can't even force myself to sleep even though I know I must."

Yugi shrugged. "I don't know. To tell the truth I was never the strong one. It was the pharaoh, Atem, who kept me going. When my friends were in danger, I let him take over while I freaked out. He was strong enough for the both of us." Yugi paused for a moment to remember his old friend. "But, I think what kept us both strong was knowing that our friends were always there to support us, which is why I don't think you should go alone."

"I appreciate the support Yugi." Marik said with a slight smile. "But I can't allow anyone else to come with me. If you or anyone else got hurt, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself."

Yugi gave his friend a supportive smile. "Then at least let me give you something that would help." With that, he reached up to the shelf over his bed for the gold puzzle box. Long ago, it used to hold the pieces to the millennium puzzle. Now it held his deck.

"Yugi, I can't take those cards from you," Marik said, assuming his roommate was going to give him the Egyptian gods, the very cards he had so greedily pursued.

The boy simply smiled and took a single card from his deck. "Don't worry, I insist. It will totally catch Arkana off guard."

Marik graciously took the card from Yugi and looked at it. "Your Dark Magician Girl?" he asked puzzled.

"Yup," Yugi confirmed smiling. "That's the card I beat Arkana with. He'll never expect you to have it in your deck."

Marik smiled back gratefully. "Thank you Yugi. When I'm dueling Arkana tomorrow, I'll remember your kindness and support."

"Just remember…" Yugi began. "It's not just me. All your friends will be right behind you, rooting for you. Even if we aren't physically there with you, you'll always know we believe in you."

[-]

_"Did you see Perry Dillon at that party Friday?" Mimi Mumfry loud-whispered to her friends. _

_Mimi, Muffy and Martha primped in the gym locker room. They, along with Molly, were the only girls left straggling in there after 8th period gym. Molly had to stick around for dance team practice and the Mi's had all the time in the world since they had a car on call. _

_"He was so drunk he passed out in the bathtub and didn't make it home till the next morning." She giggled. Then she snapped her fingers at Martha and held out her palm. "Lip gloss." _

_"Are you sure that's true Mimi?" Martha asked as she rummaged through her purse looking for the lip gloss. _

_"We can always ask." She answered with a wicked smirk. "Hey, Molly…"_

_Molly sighed warily and slammed her locker door shut. "What?" She knew Mimi and her friends were only trying to make her miserable. They'd been doing that since 7th grade when Molly refused to become another one of Mimi's lip gloss carriers. It got ten times worse, however, when her brother stated hanging out with the school junkies._

_"Do you know what time Perry got home the other night?"_

_"No, I had to get up early for dance on Saturday." She answered ruefully. But that was a lie. She did have dance in the morning, but she did know when Perry got home. _

_He stumbled in at around 5:30ish am. When he didn't come home the night before, Molly told her parents he called and said he was sleeping at a friend's house. She even had one of her friends call then house so she could pretend like she was talking to him. By now they had the drill down pat. It wasn't the first time Molly covered for his drunk ass._

_In middle school, Perry had trouble fitting in. When some older kids, the lushes, decided to take him under their wing, Perry couldn't have been more excited. He was so happy just to have people to hang out with, that he willingly did anything they told him to do. For the most part, this referred to drugs. _

_Molly worried about him, of course, but she also wanted to keep him out of trouble with their parents. She tried to convince him that these people were bad news, but he refused to listen. All she felt she could do was cover for him. _

_Back in the present, Molly grabbed her things and rushed past the girls. _

_"Where are you going?" Muffy called._

_"I have dance team practice." She replied smirking. "You know, because I made the team." Being the only freshman to make it was the only thing she had over Mimi. _

_"You know why you made it?" Mimi asked snapping Molly's bra strap. Molly just swatted the hand away and brought her books up to cover her chest. _

_"How come you never go to the parties, Molly?" She asked with fake concern. "I bet you can get just as wild as your brother."_

"_I have a practice almost every night," Molly retorted._

_Mimi scoffed at this. "Right, cause you want to be a _dancer _when you grow up." She did some over-exaggerated jazz hands when she said 'dancer.' "Like that would ever happen…unless you don't mind dancing on a pole."_

_Molly just turned to walk away. Mimi wasn't worth being late for practice. _

_"He does way worse things than drink!" Mimi called after her. "You must be ashamed to be related to him! I bet you hope he ODs soon so he won't embarrass you!"_

_Molly started running at these words. Tears flew from her eyes as she thought of Mimi's words. _I bet you hope he ODs soon so he won't embarrass you anymore._ Regarding the hope part, the mean girl couldn't have been further from the truth. But the possibility of the drugs killing her brother was always a worry in the back of her mind. _

"You look deep in thought," Arkana said from his throne. Molly came back to the present. She tried to look annoyed but was actually relieved for the interruption. The rest of that day was too painful to remember. "Tell me what you were thinking."

"I'm thinking that nothing you do to me could possibly be worse than middle school," She replied with a smirk.

"We'll see about that," He said narrowing his eyes.

Molly lay back down and stared at the roof of her small prison. She thought about school, dance, games, song lyrics…anything to keep herself from continuing to allow this psycho to put thoughts in her head.

"You know attempting to defy me is pointless, right?" Arkana stated.

Molly sat up and glared at him. "What is the point of all this? Why do you want me to remember these things?"

The mad man smirked and came down from the throne. "Everyone has moments in their lives they are not proud of. I want to know yours. What is your greatest sin? What are you most ashamed of? What is the worst thing you've ever down?"

Molly gripped the roots of her hair and shut her eyes as if that would keep the memories away. He knew the questions would only involuntarily bring up painful memories, ones she would prefer not to remember.

For a long while she was able to keep these memories at bay. She thought of trivial things, mentally going through every dance she could remember, counting the number of shows she ever did (going all the way back to her first dance recital at the age of three), attempting to remember all the funniest things her friends have ever said. But no matter how disconnected the subject seemed to the memories, all her thoughts somehow turned back to her brother.

_Molly pushed against the police tape-covered door to her brother's room. It labored hard against the clutter that carpeted the room. Loud music, that to her sounded more like a cat in distress, blared from the unseen stereo as he lay dead asleep in his bed._

_"Unbelievable…" She mumbled and she threw clothes and papers around attempting to find the source of the noise. "Un-freaking-believable. You just lay there sleeping like a baby, completely unfazed by the racket while the rest of the word goes deaf. How can listen to this crap without getting a migraine? It's like you have these ears that don't register volume." Finally, she found the stereo and shut it off._

_"Hey…" Perry asked sleepily and he woke up. "Who turned off the music?"_

_"Seriously?" his sister cried in disbelief. "You can sleep with that racket on but you can't when it's quiet?"_

_"I stopped feeling the vibration on the bed."_

_"Whatever," she said, disregarding his last statement. "Do you have my math book?"_

_Perry slightly pushed himself up. "I don't know. Can I go back to sleep now?"_

_"No, you can't," she said locating his backpack and searching through it. "You know why? Because you slept through dinner again."_

_Her brother finally snapped awake. "Put that down!" He shouted jumping out of bed. "You can't look through my stuff."_

_After a few more seconds of searching, she saw why. "Perry…" She whispered holding up the syringe. "Is this for what I think it's for? Cause I know you're not using it for flu shots."_

_"It's no big deal!" He shouted swiping the book bag away._

_"Perry, I knew about the drinking and the smoking but I thought you were smart enough not to get mixed up with that stuff," she said with a serious look on her face._

_"I know what I'm doing," he growled._

_"Do you know you can die?" She screamed back at him, feeling the pinch of on-coming tears behind her eyes._

_"I bet you'd like that wouldn't you?" He cried. "Then you can go on being little miss perfect and then you'll have nothing in your life to be ashamed of!"_

_The sting of his words showed clearly on her face. "I'm not ashamed of you. I'm just sick of watching you do this to yourself."_

_"I'll be fine," he said, almost reassuringly._

_"Oh, I know you'll be fine," she replied, voice full of determination. "Because I'm done covering for you."_

_Perry stared at her shocked. "Moll! You can't do that!"_

_"Pear, I have to," she said taking his hand. "Remember when we were kids and I fell off the monkey bars? Mom told me not to but I did it anyway."_

_"Yeah, you always did stuff like that," he said, finally smiling a little. "How come you don't take risks anymore?"_

_"Perry, I take risks," she replied softly. "Every time I perform I risk falling on my face and embarrassing myself. And I risk Miss Judy yelling at me whenever I throw a layout when a routine only calls for a tuck."_

_"Show off," her brother joked, popping her on the arm._

_"I know." She smiled and rubbed her arm, cherishing the moment. Rarely did they have moments of twin-love lately. "But I'd never risk my life for something as stupid as making those idiots like me." She knew she sounded like an after-school special but it had to be said._

_And just like that, their friendly moment was gone. Perry was angry again. "Oh, so you think it's stupid that I want to have friends?"_

_"And here we are back at number 4 on Perry Dillon's greatest hits," she said exasperated. "I'm sick of having the same fight with you Perry!"_

_They were interrupted by a honk from outside and their mother calling from downstairs. "Molly! Your ride's here!"_

_"Coming!" She called back before turning towards her brother. "You have until I get back from dance tonight to tell mom and dad everything or when I come back, I will, and I'll show them what's in your backpack."_

_"You can't!" Perry cried. "They can't know!"_

_"I have to tell them Perry," she said as she walked away. "But if I tell them, they'll be able to help._

_All through dance class she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. She hoped she was just nervous for Perry but when she arrived home that night, she found it was much more. Her friend's mother turned down their street and a look of regret came over her face. Outside Molly's house were an ambulance, a police car, and a growing crowd of nosy neighbors._

_Both Molly's friend and her mother tried to get her to stay in the car, but she didn't listen. She ran out of the car, past the crowd, and under the police tape until a cop finally stopped her._

_"No one can pass the police line miss."_

_"But this is my house!" She screamed back at him. "What happened?"_

_"Molly, Honey!" She heard her mother cry. She looked up to see both her parents standing on the front lawn. Her father held her mother protectively, wiping tears from his wife's eyes while more tears gathered in his own. The girl ran past the police man to her parents. Her father opened his arms and let her into his embrace._

_"Where's Perry?" She asked fearful of the answer. Her parents could only glance in the direction of the ambulance then look back at their daughter. Molly looked up just in time to see the paramedics wheel a body bag into the back of the ambulance and shut the doors._

_"No!" She screamed gripping her father's shirt. "No! Perry can't be gone!"_

_Her father simply wiped the tears from his own eyes and pulled his now-only child into a hug with her mother. "I'm sorry, baby," he whispered while stroking her hair. Molly could only hug her parents and cry with them._

His death was ruled an accidental overdose, but Molly knew they were only half-right. He hadn't meant to die but he took everything he had on purpose. She suspected he did it so that she'd have no proof when she told her parents and she supposed he thought just throwing it away would be a waste.

Back in the present, Molly tried her hardest to keep the tears back. Her captor would no doubt see this as weakness. He wouldn't know that the tears were not for him, but for her poor brother. Never before had she let herself remember that day so vividly. She would always distract herself. It was part of the reason she transferred to ACPA; dancing distracted her. There was so much to think about: point your toes, remember to spot, keep on the beat. It was constant motion and if she could just keep moving, those memories couldn't catch up to her, right?

But here, where she was forced to keep still, they finally had. The tears could not be held back much longer. Attempting to hide her moistening eyes from Arkana, she hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face in them. She hoped he would think she was just trying to sleep but her shaking shoulders gave her away. "Perry…" she whispered, unaware of how close Arkana had approached her.

"And Perry is…" He said with a wicked smirk.

Her emotions were overflowing now. She was unable to control her voice as she answered him. "My brother."

Good, we're finally getting somewhere. He thought. "What happened to your brother?"

"He's dead," she replied, her body racking with sobs.

"How did he die?"

"He overdosed on heroin," she answered sadly.

"My, my…" the mad man tsk-tsked "And why would he do that?"

"I told him, if he didn't come clean to our parents, I'd show them that he had it. I never would have covered for him if I'd known it would lead to this. I just wanted to help him."

"Ah, I see. So he took too much so you would have no evidence."

"Yes."

He gave a fiendish smile as he began to circle the cage. "So, because you covered for him, his addictions escalated."

"Yes."

"So why was he on heroin?"

"I kept covering for him."

"And why did he overdose?"

"So I couldn't tell on him."

"So your brother's death?"

"My fault."

Arkana chuckled as he realized he'd finally reached the point he hoped to take this girl.

"So, your worst mistake was?"

"I shouldn't have covered for him."

"Your greatest regret?"

"I shouldn't have given him that ultimatum."

Arkana's smile grew to a full grin with this final question. "Your greatest sin?"

Molly trembled as the guilt that had resided in the back of her mind was about to be vocalized. "I killed my brother!" she finally screamed, letting her emotions spill over.

Arkana let out a low chuckle of satisfaction. He watched her cry with a smug sneer, until she finally collected herself enough to ask "How did you know about my brother?"

"My dear…" Arkana knelt down to meet her eye level. "I knew you had committed a great wrong, even if I did not know the specifics. You are a woman."

"So?" Molly asked, wary of where this could be going.

"You women are vain, vile creatures. You only exist to hurt others. I know this now. I was blinded by a woman's charm once. I even asked her to be my wife, but before that day came there was a tragic accident. She left me soon after that, but I was still under her spell. I convinced myself it was my fault, that I drove her away. But now I've realized the truth. She was only with me for the success and fame. She left me soon after it was gone. And if one I thought to be the perfect woman could be so cruel, then it must be true of all women."

The girl stared at him in disgust and disbelief. "That's not true! You are the cruel one! I bet she didn't leave you because you weren't successful. She left because she realized what an insane son of a bitch you really are!"

Angrily, he grabbed her shirt and pulled her up against the cold iron bars. "Silence! You stupid girl! You know nothing about my Catherine so I suggest you shut up!" He shouted, momentarily loosing his cool. Collecting himself, he dropped Molly and stood up.

"No matter," he said dusting himself off. "At least you were prompt, girly. It is nearly morning. I was beginning to think you wouldn't break in time."

"I didn't break!" she shouted, but she did not believe herself.

Arkana simply ignored her outburst and motioned toward two people she couldn't see. Soon, two of Arkana's henchmen unlocked the cage and grabbed at her. She fought and bit with every ounce of energy she had left, but that damned needle plunged into her shoulder again and the oblivion overcame her once more.

[-]

Marik awoke from his troubled sleep before sunrise. After getting ready, he grabbed his duel disk, deck, and helmet and started out the door. For a moment he glanced back at Yugi, who was still asleep in his bed.

"Thank you for having faith in me, my friend…but I simply cannot risk the lives of any more people."

With that, Marik left the room. Once outside, he mounted his bike and rode off toward the sunrise.


	7. The Mad Magician

Chapter 7

"Man, I can't believe he just left like that." Joey said. He hopped up and down while he put on his shoes.

"It's true Joey." Yugi replied. "He left without a word."

"Well we better get going." Tea asked, starting down the hall. "Where did he say the duel was?"

"He wouldn't tell me." Yugi responded sadly. "He's connived the Rare hunters will hurt us if we get anywhere near the duel.

"He's going to get himself hurt if he has to face all those punks alone." Tristan answered.

Yugi nodded in response. "I know, Tristan. We just need to find a way to locate the duel."

"Wait! I've got an idea." Joey exclaimed. He then pulled out his phone and began dialing.

"Joey, if he doesn't want us to follow him, he's not going answer." Bakura said, assuming Joey was calling Marik.

"I'm not calling Marik." He said. He then shushed everyone when person on the other end picked up. "Hey, Kaiba, It's Joey Wheeler and…" He was abruptly cut off by the dial tone. "That jerk hung up on me!"

"Well, you are calling at 6 o'clock in the morning." Tea pointed out.

"But, that is a good idea, Joey." Yugi answered, dialing his own phone.

Yugi waited patiently for Kaiba to pick up the other end. This time, he started the conversation. "This had better be good." Kaiba answered grumpily.

"It sort of is. We found the counterfeiters." Yugi began. Kaiba made a grunt of acknowledgement and Yugi continued. "The problem is that they kidnapped one of our friends and Marik went after them. Now we don't know where to find them."

"What do you expect me to do about it?" Kaiba asked after a long silence.

"Marik has his duel disk with him. He plans to duel the new head of the Rare Hunters. We were hoping you could track him."

Kaiba offered an exhausted sigh. "Hold on." Yugi heard some rustling and the clicks of a keyboard before Kaiba spoke again. "Your friend just stopped in front of a building downtown. He entered and from there I lost the signal."

"What building is it?" Yugi asked eagerly.

He heard some more keyboard sounds before Kaiba answered. "He's in the Checker Theater."

"That must be it." Yugi exclaimed. "Thanks Kaiba, you've been a great help."

"Kaiba was a great help?" Joey asked sarcastically after Yugi hung up.

"He was." Yugi answered. "Marik's in the old Checker Theater. That must be where they're keeping Molly too."

"Hasn't that been abandoned for years?" Bakura asked.

"Yeah, which is probably why Arkana's there" Duke answered. "Come on, we can't waste any more time."

[-]

Marik parked in front of the boarded-up Checker Theater. According to his research, it was closed due to numerous structural problems and was set to be demolished in a few weeks, making it the perfect place for Arkana and the rare hunters to hide out. They wouldn't have to worry about leaving too much evidence seeing how the city was just going to clean up for them. He found that getting into the theater was relatively easy. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, as Arkana wanted him there anyway. Red paper arrows, the same ones he used to lure Yugi to the warehouse to duel Bandit Keith, lead him to the side of the building. A stage door had been left open for him.

The theater was completely dark except for the row of lights on the edge of the stage illuminating the floor. Marik made it to the middle of the stage and looked around the room with stern, narrowed eyes.

"Arkana!" He called into the darkness, throwing in a touch of the old bitterness that used to be in his voice. "I demand you show yourself!" He thought that maybe he could rattle Arkana if he reminded the magician who used to be the feared leader; used to being the operative words.

Faint clapping came from somewhere in the audience. The lights over the audience turned on, revealing Arkana sitting in the front row clapping. He stood up, giving a mock standing ovation. "Oh, bravo. You're portrayal of your former self was almost perfect. However, you are no longer running the show."

"What have you done with Molly?" he demanded, choosing to ignore Arkana's comments.

"Molly?" Arkana repeated, approaching the stage. "I'll get to that soon enough."

"You'd better let her go this instant." Marik ordered. "You got me here, so you have no further reason to keep her."

Arkana let out a wicked cackle that sent shivers down Marik's spine. "But what fun would that be? Besides, aren't you curious about the duel you've come all this way for?"

Marik glowered at the fiendish magician, not interested in having his type of 'fun'. "I assume Molly is your sick idea of a prize. If I win you'll spare her life and if I lose…" No, I can't think like that. I won't lose.

"You got some of it right." Arkana replied. "But you'll find it's not as simple as that." The man reached into a pocket of his red suit and pulled out a small, rectangular box. "Catch." He said throwing the box at Marik.

Marik caught it with one hand. "What is it?" he asked trying to pry it open.

"Uh, uh, uh…not so fast. Don't you see those numbers?" Arkana taunted.

Marik flipped the box over and saw the number 4000 lit up on one side. "Lifepoints…"

Arkana nodded. "Yes, they are my lifepoints. If they drop to zero, the box will open."

"And what's in the box?" Marik asked impatiently.

Arkana sneered as if he enjoyed explaining his diabolical plan. "A key, one you will regret losing."

"Don't try my patience, Arkana!" Marik snapped "Tell me your plan this instant or…"

"Or what?" Arkana laughed. "You'll refuse to duel, leaving an innocent life at my mercy? Face it, you have no leverage here. You have no power over anything anymore. All you can do is blindly follow my rules and hope to whatever god you pray to that I won't double cross you."

[-]

"That's Marik's motorcycle." Yugi called from the passenger seat from Tea's car.

"Then we're definitely in the right place." She replied, pulling over. Duke parked his car right behind her.

When they got out, they found no other than Seto Kaiba waiting for them. "I was wondering when you geeks were going to show up."

"What are you doing here Kaiba?" Joey demanded.

"On the phone, you guys sounded like you were going to need some help." He answered smugly.

"Cut the crap, Kaiba." Joey retorted, getting in Kaiba's face. "We all know you don't care about people so what is it?" If Joey's words hurt Kaiba, his expression didn't show it.

"Actually, why did you come?" Yugi asked, his apologetic tone attempting to make up for Joey's rudeness. "You don't know our friend and you don't know Marik that well either, for that matter."

"I want these guys caught just about as much as you do. Counterfeiting only disgraces the game." Kaiba answered.

"Back when we asked you to help, you said it was none of your business." Joey retorted.

"I'm making it my business." He turned toward the building, making it clear that the conversation was over.

The gang immediately spotted the arrows. They followed the arrows around the side of the building only to find that the stage doors have been chained together. "Obviously, whoever this guy is doesn't want anyone intruding." Kaiba observed.

"That's fine, 'cause I know how we're getting in." Joey said running back around to the front. They followed him around to the front of the building where he was attempting to kick in the boards covering the front entrance.

"You're taking forever." Tea growled pushing Joey out of the way. "This is how it's done." With one swift kick, she broke a hole open in the board.

Joey and Tristan looked on dumbfounded. "I guess dancing isn't a waste of time."

[-]

The auditorium doors bust open and Marik's friends ran in, straight up to the edge of the stage.

"Guys! What are you doing here?" Marik called.

"We had to come." Yugi replied. "We're your friends and friends stick together, no matter what."

"Yeah, and what kind of friends would we be if we didn't completely ignore your wishes and came anyway?" Joey said with a smile.

Marik couldn't help but smile. Their words touched him so deeply. That they would risk their own safety just to lend him their support, despite the awful things he did to them in the past? They were the best friends in the world, no doubt.

"Thank you." The words seemed so inadequate but there they were.

"You're wrong Arkana." Marik said turned to the mad man confidently. "I still have power. I have the power to beat you and your twisted games."

"Well then let's get this show started." Arkana laughed. "After all, we now have an audience waiting. As for that key, it opens this." He pointed up as another set of spotlights lit up revealing a large rectangular box with question marks all over it. "Do you recognize it?"

"Mystic Box." Yugi gasped from the front row.

Arkana looked at Yugi with a wicked sneer on his face. "That's right little Yugi. I bet you can guess who's inside it."

Marik's eyes widened as he looked up at the box. "Molly!"

"Correct again." Arkana stated almost gleefully. "Don't bother calling to her though. That box is completely sound proof. And that's not the only change I've made to it. You see that box is not an exact replica. It has only four slots for the swords, which brings me to my explanation as to what will happen with your life points." More spotlights lit up revealing four swords suspended from the rafters. Each one had a different number on it: 3000, 2000, 1000, and 0. "For every thousand lifepoints you lose, a new sword will be released. They are all rigged to swing down when you reach that number. Don't worry though, the swords are strategically placed so that she won't actually die unless you lose the duel…or, of course, if the duel goes on so long she loses too much blood."

Marik looked on the set up absolutely disgusted. "You're insane." He growled.

"Well, I prefer to think of myself as eccentric." Arkana replied. "But I guess you can call me a little nutty."

"Nutty? You're completely f*cked in the head!" Joey yelled.

"This isn't even a fair fight." Tea said while looking apprehensively at the set up. "I mean Marik can't even lose a thousand lifepoints without someone getting hurt."

"Well, Arkana hardly likes to play fair." Yugi replied harshly. "When I dueled him, he cheated and took every unfair advantage he could. I guess he still hasn't learned."

Up on stage, Marik turned his eye s back towards Arkana. If looks could kill, the ex-magician would already be dead and buried. "What if I refuse to duel you under these conditions?"

"Then that's your choice." Arkana said pulling a small remote control out of his sleeve. "But if you refuse then I'll be forced to set your lifepoints to zero causing all of the swords to drop at the same time. Oh well, at least she'll die somewhat quickly."

"Why are you doing this?" he asked with a snarl. "Why are you so determined to hurt someone you don't even know? I am your target, so why not try to hurt me?"

"Ah, but I am." The mad man snickered back. "If the girl gets hurt it will be your fault because she got mixed up in your past. The mental torture will be so much better than anything I could do to you."

"You bastard." He growled.

Arkana simply met the insult with a smirk. "No need to be so harsh. You may name your own conditions as well."

Marik didn't need to think long before stating them. "You can't hurt my friends, and if I win you have to let us all leave and that includes Molly."

"Very well. After this duel I have no further use for her." He replied. "Let's begin." He activated his duel disk, sending the holographic projectors flying.

Marik activated his as well. "You will regret crossing me."

"We'll see at the end of the duel." Arkana answered. "Are you ready, Marik? Are you ready to duel with another's life on the line?"

No…was the answer he received in his heart. How can you possibly prepare for such a thing? Despite this, there would be no backing down. He looked at his opponent with a determined, defiant gaze. "I will defeat you, Arkana. Just watch."


	8. The Duel

Chapter 8

Both duelists stared at each other with matched intensity but vastly different expressions.

Arkana's was one of amusement; amusement in his opponent's confidence. That the boy thought he could win even with the odds clearly against him was laughable in Arkana's mind.

Marik's, however, was one of determination and defiance. He knew this would be tough to win but losing simply wasn't an option and neither was backing down.

"I'm feeling generous today, so I'll let you go first." Arkana said, finally breaking the silence.

"Yes, you're quite the giver." Marik spat sarcastically. He eyed his opponent suspiciously. Arkana seemed to be way too happy about the hand he drew. There was no doubt in Marik's mind that the magician was using his old card tricks. "I place two cards face down and play Gil Garth in attack mode. I'll end my turn here."

"Oh is that all?" Arkana asked as he eyed the holographic monster that appeared on the field. "Fine." He drew a card and smiled. "I'll play Mystic Tomato in attack mode. Then I'll use Soul Exchange."

"What? No."

"Yes. I'm going to take control of your monster and sacrifice it to bring out my Dark Magician." He grinned sinisterly as his red Dark Magician appeared on the field. "Lucky for you, I can't attack this turn so go ahead at take your turn. You won't have too many of those left."

"Fine." Marik responded drawing a card. He looked up at the red Dark Magician looking back at him before looking back at his hand. Unfortunately, he didn't have any monster cards in his hand. But he did have something that could stop the dark magician, at least for this attack. "First I'll activate my trap card Solemn Wishes which gives me 500 life points for every card I draw. Now I'll play Pot of Greed which allows me to draw two cards raising my life points by 1000." [5000]

"I don't get it." Tristan said from the seats. "Why is he jacking up his life points now? It's not like he's even lost any yet."

"I think I know why." Yugi replied. "Look at the swords. The numbers on them only go up to 3000. So, if he can keep his life points above that number the whole duel, none of the swords have to come down."

"Oh, I get it, the more points he has, the more he can risk losing without anyone getting hurt."

"Right, but now he also has to worry about protecting his points for that Dark Magician." Bakura chimed in.

Back up on stage, Marik slid a card into a slot on his duel disk. "I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"If you think one facedown card is going to stop me then you are sadly mistaken." Arkana said drawing a card. "Dark Magician, attack his life points directly."

"You activated my trap card, Mirror Force." The glass-like wall rose up around Marik, both blocking the attack and destroying the Dark Magician.

Arkana scowled as his favorite card was destroyed. "My Dark Magician may be gone for now, but don't forget, I have ways of bringing him back. Now, I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"It doesn't matter how many times you bring him back. You'll still lose." Marik said back. "My move." Come on, I need a monster. He thought as he placed his hand on his deck. He drew a card, raising his lifepoints again by 500 [5500]. _Sangan_, he thought as he looked at the card in his hand. _It's not much, but it'll have to do._

"I play Sangan in attack mode." He said setting the card down on his duel disk. "Sangan, attack his lifepoints directly."

Arkana merely chuckled as the little holographic creature took 1000 of his lifepoints. [3000]. "Get your attacks in while you can. I intend to end this duel as soon as I bring back my Dark Magician."

"I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

"Alright, my move." Arkana said, drawing a card. "First, I'll activate my trap card, Dust Tornado, and I'll use it to destroy your Solemn Wishes." Marik could only watch as his card as swept off the field. "No more extra points for you." Arkana continued with a smirk. "Now, I'll summon Legion Fiend Jester in attack mode. Now, Legion Fiend Jester, attack his Sangan."

The monster obeyed, destroying Marik's Sangan. [5200]. "You've only scratched my lifepoints." Marik replied. "I can still win."

"We'll see about that, once I bring my Dark Magician back, this duel will be over." Arkana retorted. "Now I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

"This duel isn't over yet." Marik said, drawing a card. "First, I'll reveal my trap card, Call of the Haunted to bring back Sangan."

"That pathetic little monster will do you no good." Arkana interrupted.

"I'm not finished yet." Marik retorted. "I'll now sacrifice it to bring out Dark Magician Girl."

Arkana looked back, stunned. "What? How do you have that card?"

"I see you remember it." Marik said with a smirk. "This card was lent to me by a friend to help me defeat you. And now, Dark Magician Girl, attack his Legion Fiend Jester."

Arkana scowled as his monster was destroyed. [2000]

"Now I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

The scowl on Arkana's face changed to a grin after he drew his next card. "It appears I will no longer have to wait for my Dark Magician to appear." He said. "I play Monster Reborn to bring him back." No sooner than when he put the card on the duel disk, did the Dark Magician appear on the field. "Now, my Dark Magician, attack his Dark Magician Girl."

"You've triggered my trap card, Sakurestsu Armor. Now your attack is directed back at your Dark Magician."

"Not so fast. I activate my magic card Anti-Magic Arrows and use it to destroy your trap card." Arkana said as the Dark Magician destroyed the Dark Magician Girl. "And that's not all. I have another magic card to play."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you recognize this?" Arkana held up the card Surprise Attack From Beyond.

"Where did you get that?" Marik asked surprised.

"I am the leader of the Rare Hunters now." Arkana replied. "I'll now use it to launch a direct attack on your lifepoints."

"You can't"

"I'm afraid I can." Arkana smirked. "Now, Dark Magician, attack his lifepoints directly." The monster obeyed and attacked Marik, lowering his lifepoints. [2200]. "Now that you've lost over a thousand lifepoints, the first sword can finally drop."

They all looked up to see the first sword swing down from the ceiling and go directly through its slot. The end of the blade came out the other side. The blood dripped off the blade as evidence that it had hit its target. His friends looked on in disbelief but Marik had to look away. Ever since the initiation ritual, the sight of blood sickened him.

"Why?" The word finally escaped his mouth. "What has she done to deserve your torment?"

"Why?" Arkana laughed wickedly back. "Does this not seem familiar? Back in Battle City, you had no problem using Yugi's friends to get to him."

Marik cast his eyes downward. "You're right, there's not much difference."

"Exactly! You may think I am the monster here but you have done the same. Who are you to tell me I am wrong?" Arkana said harshly.

"Because I was wrong then." Marik shot back. "I may have been the monster in Battle City but you are the monster now and I refuse to let you win."

"Win? If you ask me, you don't deserve your prize." Arkana snapped. "I remember when I had everything I could want. I had fame, success, and most importantly I had my Catherine. But after my accident, I lost it all. Everyone I cared about left me, including my Catherine. Now, you have everything and I have nothing! Why should you have anything good? You don't deserve it. You only deserve suffering and I'll make sure that's what you get."

"It's true, I have an incredible family and amazing friends and I don't deserve them. But that doesn't mean I'll let you take anything away from me!" Marik said.

Arkana scowled. "Go ahead and try to stop me, but as we stand here talking, your little girlfriend is losing blood and her time is running out."

Marik looked back at his cards._ I need to end this duel fast._ He thought to himself. _If I had a monster strong enough, I could end this duel by taking out his Dark Magician. But to do that, I'd need a monster with over 4000 attack points_. He looked at the Magic Card United We Stand and thought of a plan. "First I'll place one card face down. Then, I'll summon Gil Garth in attack mode."

"What? I used your Gil Garth to summon my Dark Magician the first time."

"Yes but I have two Gil Garths and I'll use this one to help bring your Dark Magician down." Marik replied.

"How? It doesn't have enough attack points to destroy my Dark Magician." Arkana asked.

"You'll see soon enough." Marik said. _But what if my magic card doesn't provide my monster with enough attack points?_ He couldn't think of anything else in his deck that would give his monster enough attack points. _But maybe Arkana does._ He thought after catching a glimpse of the Exchange card he held in his hand. _Using it would be a huge risk. Arkana could have nothing useful in his hand and take something important from mine. _Then, a memory popped into his head that helped make his decision.

[-]

_"All right, I won!" Joey exclaimed after beating Bakura in a friendly duel. _

_"Congratulations Joey." Bakura said, cleaning his cards off the café table. _

_"How did you know those cute little dice guys were going to work out in your favor?" Molly asked, taking a sip of her smoothie. _

_Joey looked back at her confused. "Cute little what? Oh you mean my Graceful Dice and my Skull Dice. That's easy. I didn't know." _

_"It was just dumb luck." Marik teased. _

_"Hey don't knock dumb luck. It's gotten me out of some tough spots before." Joey retorted. _

_"Yes, but if those risks don't work out for you, you'd be in more trouble than before." Marik replied. _

_Joey replied with a shrug. "Maybe, but when it does work out, it's _definitely worth it." Joey finished with a confident smile.

[-]

As the memory dissolved, Marik thought about Joey's words about taking risks. "Now I play Exchange." He said, deciding the risk was worth it.

"What is that freak doing?" Kaiba said under his breath.

"What do you think he's up to Yugi?" Tea asked. "What could Arkana have that he wants?"

"At this point, I'd just be using that card to get that bastard in arm-swinging length." Joey said.

"I don't know about that, but whatever his plan is, I just hope it works." Yugi replied.

Back up on stage, Marik and Arkana had reached the center. Arkana held out his cards. Marik saw that his opponent had a Magic Formula car in his hand, just the type of thing he was looking for. "I'll take this." He said taking the card for his own.

Arkana frowned suspiciously when he saw which card Marik chose. "If that's the way you want to use this turn, then fine. I'll simply do the same thing." He said taking Marik's Snatch Steal.

"What do you mean by that?" Marik asked, walking back to his place.

"You only took that card so that I couldn't use it. I just did the same to you." Arkana answered.

"Fine. Then I shall end my turn here."

"Very well, but I hope you realize you left yourself wide open for an attack." Arkana replied. "Now, my Dark Magician, attack his Gil Garth."

"Not so fast, Arkana." Marik said. "I activate my trap card, Metal Reflect slime." He said as the metallic gel formed into a copy of the Dark Magician. "My Metal Reflect monster has 3000 defense points, which is more than your Dark Magician's attack."

"Fine, then I'll cancel my attack." Arkana said with a scowl. "I'll place one card face down and end my turn." _Enjoy that Metal Reflect Slime while you can._ Arkana thought. _It can be destroyed like a monster, so the Thousand Knives I just set will have it out of my way in no time._

"All right then, my move." Marik said. "I hope you enjoyed this duel because I'm about to end it with one attack."

Arkana looked back, shocked. "What? How can you possibly mean that?"

"Just watch, Arkana." Marik replied. "First I'll play the magic card Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy your face down card."

"No! My trap card!"

"Yes, the second you put that down, I knew you would use it to destroy my Metal Reflect Slime, but I'm afraid I still need him at the moment. Then I'll summon Dark Jeroid. When this monster is summoned I can choose one of your monsters to lose 800 attack points and I choose your Dark Magician. But that's not all. I'll now use monster reborn to bring back the Dark Magician Girl. Remember the Magic Formula I took from you? I'm going to equip my Dark Magician girl with it to raise her attack by 700."

"That's still not enough to finish me in one attack." Arkana said.

"I'm not finished yet, Arkana." Marik shot back. "I'll also use United We Stand to give Dark Magician Girl 800 attack and defense points for every monster I have on the field, and because my Metal Reflect Slime also counts as a monster, I have three. This gives her a total of 5100 attack points, more than enough to finish you off. Now Dark Magician Girl, attack his Dark Magician and end this duel." As soon as the Dark Magician Girl attacked the Dark Magician, Marik picked up the key box he left on the ground and watched the numbers drop. When they hit zero, the box opened up, revealing the key.

Across the stage, Arkana's bitter scowl turned into a sinister sneer as smoke began to surround him. "Enjoy your victory now, because it will be short lived."

"What does that mean?" Marik asked, trying not to choke on the smoke.

"You will see soon enough." He laughed as he disappeared through a trap door on the stage floor.

Once the smoke cleared, Marik went to retrieve a ladder that was left in the wings, while the rest on the group ran up onto stage. After climbing up the ladder, he put the key in the lock and turned it. He paused for a second to mentally prepare himself for the grisly scene he was sure to see, before opening the door.

Back down on stage, Tristan noticed a hidden trap door on the part of stage Marik where was standing. He kicked it open and saw a bed of spikes waiting at the bottom. "Whoa, check this out guys." He said.

"What did you find?" Tea asked as they walked over.

"It looks like Arkana was planning on killing Marik too." Tristan answered.

A one-armed dummy came loudly crashing down to the stage causing everyone to jump. "It was a trick." Marik called, having thrown the dummy down. "Molly was never in there at all."

"It was a fake?" Joey asked bewildered. "No way, how'd he do the blood?"

Marik jumped down from the ladder and landed in front of them. "With this." He said angrily flicking a packet of fake blood to the ground. "He had these taped over all the slots the swords went in."

"Of course it was a fake." Kaiba scoffed. "I knew he was bluffing the second he said that box was soundproof."

"Well if you knew, why didn't you say something before we all had simultaneous heart attacks?" Joey shot back. Kaiba didn't answer

"So, isn't this a good thing?" Duke asked. "I mean at least we know Molly's not hurt."

"We don't know that." Marik answered harshly. "For all we know she's in even worse condition."

"He's right." Yugi said. "Arkana wants to emotionally crush Marik, and if he kept Molly, he must have had something else planned in case he lost."

"I'm not going to wait around here to find out." Marik said walking towards Arkana's trap door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Yugi called after him.

"I'm going to find Arkana and put a stop to all this madness." Marik answered.

"But wait, you don't know where that thing leads. It could be a trap." Tea said.

Marik stopped in front of the trap door and looked down into the dark hole. "It leads to Arkana, and that's all I need to know." With that, he too disappeared into the trapdoor.


	9. Carnival of Horrors

Hi, I know it's been about two years since I last updated, but trust me when I say the fact that this story has been hanging that long has been bugging the crap out of me. It was just the fact that I got alot more involved on campus and had less time to cotribute to the fic mixed with some writer's block that screwed me up. I'm sorry. I wish I could say it won't happen again, but I can't garuntee that. Anyway, enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 9

Marik landed on the mattress below with a thump. He saw the arrows, the same red arrows from outside, pointing the way down a hall. They could lead him to Arkana, or another trap. "Only one way to find out." He said to himself as he rushed to follow the arrows.

[-]

"We have to follow him." Yugi said, moving toward the hole.

"Don't be a fool." Kaiba barked, causing Yugi to stop and look at him for an explanation. "If that fool Marik wants to run into a trap, let him. If you want to do something productive, we should find one of Arkana's lackeys."

"What are you talking about Kaiba?" Joey demanded.

"If we can find of one of the Rare Hunters, we may be able to find Arkana and your friends." Kaiba elaborated. "From what I remember, they were cowards. If we can get ahold of one, it shouldn't take much to get him to tell us where they are."

As if on cue, a Rare Hunter appeared in the wings. Tristan was the first to spot him. He ran to tackle the man. After a struggle, he managed to pin the man against the wall. "Ok punk, tell us where our friends are right now."

"Forget it." The man barked.

"Listen buddy." Joey spat as he made a threatening fist. "Either you tell us where our friends are, or I can knock your teeth out."

"Fine." The man spat. "I don't know where _Master _Marik is, but I can tell you where to find the girl." He said, breaking away from Tristan.

"Oh no you don't." Tristan shouted, grabbing the man again. "You're coming with us."

Tea, who had been wandering around the theater attempting to call the police, went back up on stage. "I can't get a signal in here." She said approaching the group. "And whatever is blocking my signal drained my battery. I'm going out to try to find a payphone."

"Good idea. We're going to stay and make sure these creeps don't try anything else." Duke replied. Tea nodded and started off the stage.

"Be careful." Yugi called after her.

"I will." She called back as she ran out of the auditorium.

"Come on, who knows what Arkana's got planned next." Tristan said as they began to exit though a door backstage.

Yugi took a step forward to follow but stopped when he saw the key Marik had discarded laying on the ground. _Take it with you, Yugi…_ a strong voice told him. It was strange, it almost sounded like…

"Come on, Yuge" Joey called, breaking Yugi out of his own thought.

Yugi quickly picked up the key and ran toward his friends. "I'm coming."

[-]

The arrows took Marik to a set of mirrored double doors. He burst through and found himself in the middle of a maze of mirrors. For what felt like an eternity, he wandered around the maze making little progress. After he bumped into his own reflection for what felt like the millionth time, he heard a familiar chuckle echo through the maze.

"Stuck, Master Marik?" Arkana's voice came in through an intercom.

"Coward!" Marik shouted in response. "Show yourself."

He heard the chuckle again. "Very well." Suddenly, the mirrors filled with Arkana's image.

"Enough tricks Arkana. Get out here and face me." He shouted, looking above the mirrors.

"Ah, but I am, Marik." The voice came over the intercom again. "You just have to find me. Which one? Which one?"

Marik looked around wildly, unable to decipher any difference between the images. He did see one thing, however. Arkana had slipped up. With Arkana's image filling the mirrors, Marik could clearly see the path out of the maze. Choosing a mirror at random, Marik put his foot through it, making sure to hit it right in Arkana's smirk. The glass, shattered, revealing that they weren't mirrors, they were screens.

As predicted, Arkana's cackle echoed out of the intercom. "Nice try Marik, though it looks like you missed the mark."

"That's what you think." Marik grumbled before darting down the path of the maze. He managed to make it out before Arkana was able to turn the screens back to mirrors. He burst thought the double doors and out into yet another hallway with more red arrows pointing him to the next obstacle.

[-]

Arkana's smirk grew as he watched Marik follow the arrows down the hall. _It doesn't matter if he found a way out of the maze… _he thought, leaning back from the screen. _He is running right into another of my traps. _

He quickly glanced at another screen that showed feed from the location of the girl. He watched as his prisoner all but climbed the walls, attempting find a way out. His face fell as this sight involuntarily brought back thoughts of the strange incident that occurred that morning.

_The girl began to stir and Arkana let the grin stretch across his face. She glanced around at her surroundings and picked herself off the floor. "Where the hell am I?" She muttered as she began to regain her senses. _

"_You're still with me." Arkana replied. He saw the fear pass momentarily across her face, but she quickly attempted to mask it. Her attempts at strength were pathetic. No matter what she said or did, the fear was always present in her eyes, and Arkana was starting to like it. _

"_I'm afraid this will be your final stop." He replied._

"_What does that mean?" She asked. He could hear a touch of fear in her voice too. _

"_I hope you enjoy your day in here." He said with a smirk. "I'm afraid it will be you last."_

"_What? You said you would let me go!" she exclaimed, no longer masking her fear. _

_Arkana took a few steps closer, wanting a better look of her face. "Why would I let you go? I still need you to deal out a long overdue punishment. " The girl's feet scrambled back with each step he took toward her. He moved closer than he first intended, just to see her jump. "I said I would be free of you, and that's true. Before this day is over, you will be dead, and I will never have to concern myself with you again."_

_She stared at him, eyes filled with fear. "I won't die here." She said, attempting to maintain here brave façade. _

_He chuckled. "It's a shame you have no choice in the matter." He could see, however, that the girl was no longer listening. Her eyes darted to open door behind him. He'd purposely left it open; let her believe there was hope for escape. _

_In an instant she pushed past him and made a run for the door. He caught her before she could make much progress. She fought to break free, but he just held tighter. With a laugh, he threw her roughly into a wall._

_Another threat had already formed on his tongue when something strange happened. The girl's long curly hair became straight and short. Her green eyes became brown. The features of her face shifted until she resembled another person entirely. The recognition halted his threats and calmed his frightening demeanor. Slowly he approached her and laid a hand on her cheek. _

"_Catherine?" He dared to speak her name._

"_No!" The girl shouted – the girl who was not his Catherine. She shoved him back. He blinked a few times and it was all back; the curly hair, the green eyes, the girl's face. She was not his Catherine, and never was. _

"_I'm not Catherine." She cried, confirming his thoughts._

"_I am well aware of that, Molly." He used her name, attempting to convince them both that he did not believe she was Catherine. "I suppose I must say my final goodbye." He said, regaining his composure. "I have some business to attend to and I simply must be going." With that, he turned to leave, not allowing himself one look back to check; to make sure it really was Molly he was leaving._

Arkana rubbed his eyes and forced the memory back. It wasn't the first time he'd thought he'd seen Catherine's face. He'd thought he saw her on the street or on the subway, but it always turned out to be someone else. He pushed those incidents aside for now. Whatever had transpired that morning had no effect on the present. It was simply the light playing tricks on him. The room was dark, he couldn't see properly. He was not crazy. He wasn't seeing things. He was not beginning to see his Catherine everywhere.

Deciding it was time, he pressed button on his control panel. This allowed car exhaust to be released into the room though hidden pipes in the walls. He couldn't tell if the girl noticed any change but he decided it didn't matter. Soon the girl would be dead, he would have his revenge, and he would no longer be haunted by these illusions.

[-]

"What's with all the broken glass?" Duke wondered as they followed the rare hunter down the halls. Shards of glass covered the floors, making it impossible not to step on them.

"You going to tell us, or what?" Tristan demanded of the Rare Hunter.

"It was for the girl." He answered. "It was in case she tried to get away." The man remained silent until they stopped at a door marked Prop Room.

"She in there?" Joey asked. The man nodded silently, so Joey reached for the door knob. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked.

The light from the hall illuminated the otherwise dark room. They could see nothing but a small cage, a throne, and few dusty, discarded props piled on the corner.

Angered, Joey grabbed the Rare Hunter and pinned him against the wall. "Quit stalling and take us to our friends." He demanded. "Unless you want that ass kicking we talked about."

"You fools, it's already too late for your friends." The Rare Hunter spat back.

Yugi looked around at his friends. Most of them kept up a tough exterior, but he could see in their eyes that they were losing hope. _It's not too late… _the voice spoke again.

"He's lying!" Yugi exclaimed, trusting the voice.

"What? How do you know, Yuge?" Joey asked, turning back to his friend, confused.

"I can just tell." Yugi replied, deciding to explain later.

"How do you know your friend was ever here?" the rare hunter said with a mocking smirk. "For all you know, she was never even in the building."

"Hold on…" Kaiba said. He reached into the room and picked up a pair of women's tennis shoes. "Do these belong to your friend?" He asked, handing them to Yugi.

Yugi had never paid much attention to her shoes, but they certainly looked familiar and as far as he knew, none of the rare hunters were women. "They must. So she was here."

"Well buddy, now we've got proof." Tristan said to the rare hunter. "You might as well take us to her and she'd better be alive."

The man growled in frustration. "As far as I'm concerned, your friend was dead the second we brought her here."

[-]

Once again, the arrows stopped in front of a door. This door was metal and had a green light over it. Marik warily stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind him. He looked around the room and could see three more identical doors. The one directly across from him had red light, the one to his left had a blue light, and the one to his right had a yellow light.

He'd barely begun to wonder what this meant, when the floor moved under his him, knocking him off his feet. The entire room was rotating. It would rotate one quarter, stop momentarily, and then rotate again. Once the room stopped moving, Arkana's voice came in on the intercom again. "You may have figured out my last puzzle, but this time it won't be so easy. One of these doors will lead you on your way, but it's all a matter of picking the right door. I'll give you a hint though; it's directly across from the one you came in."

Marik got to his feet and cautiously made his way to the red door. The moment he opened it, a large weight fell from the ceiling. He was able to jump out of the way before the weight had a chance to crush him. Arkana's chuckle rang though the room. "I forgot to mention that choosing the wrong door can have some unfortunate results. Be careful though, next time you might not be so lucky. Now, you may want to hurry. She's running out of air."

"What do you mean?" He shouted at the ceiling, but received no answer; not that he expected one. He shuddered at the implications of Arkana's last statement. He put it out of his mind in order to think. Arkana must have meant that the corridor that laid behind the red door when he first walked in lead in the correct direction. Because the room rotated, it now laid behind a different door. He stopped to remember how the room had been rotated. He counted three clicks to the left and four to the right.

Before he could determine the correct door, the room started to move again. This time he remained standing and carefully counted the clicks again. This time it was two to the left, three to the right, and one more to the left. Carefully, he determined that the correct door was the blue one. Cautiously, he opened the door and peaked outside. He could see another hallway, once again with arrows pointing the way.

Marik jumped out of the room before Arkana could move it again. He gazed suspiciously down the hall. He was certain it would only lead to another trap, and he doubted Arkana would lead him to Molly, at least not before he had a chance to hurt her.

He looked around the hall. It was mostly dark and he could only see the arrows. It appeared to only be a hall without choices, but Marik figured that may not be true. Arkana was an illusionist. It was possible that his lack of choice was an illusion too.

He began feeling the around the walls looking for something: door, a window, an empty corridor, anything that Arkana might not want him to find. Eventually his hands came across something thin and metal. A ladder! He began to climb it, not caring that he didn't know where it would lead. It was so shrouded in shadow, Arkana clearly hadn't wanted him to find it.

[-]

Arkana stopped watching the screen showing the moving room when Marik left it. It hadn't kept him occupied as long as Arkana had hoped. He looked up at the screen showing the girl. To his dismay, she was still standing, still struggling to get out. She appeared to be coughing and getting weaker, which was a good sign.

Marik only had one more trap to survive through, and then the arrows would lead him to the girl. By then, she should have passed on. Marik would find her dead, find that he had failed. And Arkana would be there to deal the final blow that he so deserved.

He heard the door slam open behind him. He turned around, intending to yell at the Rare Hunters that he was not to be disturbed, but he did not see a Rare Hunter. Instead he saw Marik standing in the doorway, absolutely fuming. "How did you get in here?" Arkana asked, surprised.

"I'm finished with your games, Arkana." Marik declared firmly, taking a step forward. He grabbed Arkana's collar and slammed him against the wall of screens behind him. "You will tell me where Molly is."

"Why not see for yourself?" He replied, gesturing to the screen showing Molly's room. Marik looked just in time to see Molly lean against the door and slump lifelessly to the ground.

[-]

"Do you guys smell that?" Bakura asked as they made their way down another hall.

"Yeah, it smells like a gas station." Joey replied.

The group arrived at another door by the directions of the Rare Hunters. Once again the floor was covered with broken glass. "This is the correct room." The Rare Hunter stated.

Joey immediately started pounding on the door. "Molly, you in there?"

"She can't answer you." The Rare Hunter said, emotionlessly. "Like I said, she's already dead."

"And like we said, we don't believe you." Tristan retorted, tightening his grip on the Rare Hunter.

"I'm going to try to break it down." Joey said, taking a running start.

"Wait!" Duke cried, just as Joey bounced off the door. "We can't break it down from this side." He said, gesturing to the hinges.

"Well, how else do you expect to get in?" Joey asked.

_The Key…_ Yugi remembered. He removed it from his pocket and approached the door. "Let me try." He said. He put the key in the lock and turned it. Thankfully, the lock clicked and Yugi was able to open the door. Duke rushed in and pulled Molly out.

"Is she ok?" Yugi asked, closing the door again.

"I can't tell." Duke answered, hoisting her over his shoulder. "We need to find Marik and get out of here."

"Wait, put her on the ground." Bakura directed, to everyone else's surprise.

"Put her down?" Tristan asked. "Are you nuts? There's glass everywhere and we need to get out of here, dude."

"She may need to be resuscitated." Bakura explained. "It'd be better that I do it now instead of later."

Understanding Bakura's explanation, Joey quickly used his denim jacket to clear a space on the floor. Duke laid her down and the rest gathered around. The Rare Hunter had broken out of Tristan's grasp and run off, but they didn't pay too much attention to it.

Bakura titled her head back and leaned in, listening for breath and watching to see if her chest would rise and fall. He then placed two fingers on the side of her neck, checking for a pulse. He looked up to see his friends all holding their breath, waiting for an answer. "She's still breathing." He confirmed, letting a few of his friends exhale.

"Thank God you're pre-med." Duke muttered.

[-]

Marik dropped Arkana and leaned into the screen, attempting to determine any movement or sign of life in her. He could tell nothing from the screen. _She's dead. _The thought came from a darker part of his mind. He'd failed. An innocent life was gone because of him and his past.

He stared numbly at the screen before a small glint of something metal reflected in it, catching his attention. He turned around to find Arkana holding a knife over him. His hand shot out, grabbing Arkana's wrist.

His anger became overwhelming as he fought. He was angry at Arkana, the Rare Hunters, the world that never seemed to let him leave the past behind…but he was mostly angry at himself. Angry that he had let his guard down and allowed Arkana to come in and ruin the life he was building.

He noticed Arkana seemed to be distracted by something on the screens, and Marik took the opportunity to overpower the man. "Listen to me." He growled, pulling Arkana close by his collar. "You will pay for this. You have taken an innocent life and I will make sure you pay."

"No…" Arkana breathed, eyes still on the screens behind Marik. "That's impossible…"

"What is?" Marik looked over his shoulder. He saw that the room Molly was in was now empty. He was about to turn to Arkana and demand an explanation when he saw what was on the screen next to it. He saw his friends gathered around Molly, and one more person standing off the side. Kaiba?

Finally he saw what had taken Arkana by such shock. Molly was no longer lying motionless. She was stirring. She was waking up. She was alive.

He relaxed, allowing his grip on Arkana to loosen. Arkana slipped out of his grasp and darted out of the room, but he didn't chase after his enemy. He stayed and studied the screens, trying to connect them to a path that would lead him to his friends. He had to make sure everyone was ok, and that they got out safe.

[-]

Everything was fuzzy when she woke up. She could hear someone saying "Molly"; it took her a minute to comprehend that was her name. When her eyelids no longer felt too heavy to lift, she saw that it was Yugi.

"Yugi?" She slowly started to sit up. As she looked around, she could see that more of her friends were gathered around her. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We followed Marik here." Yugi answered. "He was trying to find you."

"Marik?" She asked, still not completely back in her senses. "How did he know where I am? I don't even know where I am."

Yugi crinkled his eyebrows together in confusion. "Molly, you know Arkana was after Marik, right?"

"This is taking too long." Kaiba grumbled. He stepped forward into the group and tossed Molly her shoes. "Here…"

She took the shoes and started putting them on. "Uh…thanks…" She answered, getting to her feet.

"Kaiba's right." Tristan said. "We'll have plenty of time for explanations once we find Marik and get out of here."

The crunching of glass caught the group's attention. They turned in the direction of the sound. Joey and Tristan got in a fighting stance, expecting to have to face some Rare Hunters. Instead, they saw Marik. He leaned one hand against the wall to catch his breath, having just sprinted there from Arkana's control room.

"You're okay…" He said between breaths.

Molly went over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Marik I…"

He didn't let her finish. He pulled her into a tight embrace, one he had no intention of breaking soon. _Let's see Arkana rip you away from me now, _he thought. He looked over Molly's shoulder at his friends. They were all there, and for the moment they were safe. Except… "Wait, where's Tea?"

"Tea?" Molly broke away from Marik's arms. "Does Arkana have her too?!"

Joey shook his head. "She should be fine. She left to get help.''

"Now that we're all back together, we should get out of here." Tristan added. "I'm getting sick of this creepy place." They started making their way out, when light from a group of flashlights landed on them.

"Freeze, police!"

"That's them! Those are my friends!" They heard Tea say. She appeared in front of the police officers, looking relieved to see her friends were alright.

"Is everyone here?" the officer asked.

"Yes, sir." Yugi answered.

"Alright then." The officer said after silently counting heads. "Everyone come with me."

* * *

Well, at least I got them out of Arkana's carnival of horrors. Hope I can update soon.


	10. Aftermath

Hey guys, new chap. Warning! very very mild sexual content (seriously so mild I probably don't need this warning, but I just wanted to be safe.)

* * *

Chapter 10

Marik sat in the waiting room at the police station nervously wringing his hands. Almost all of his friends had already been questioned and gone home. Yugi was now in the police detective's office telling his side of the story.

The good news was that the police caught most of the Rare Hunters. However, Arkana, and a few of his top minions escaped. Marik clenched his fists thinking about it. Arkana was still out there; still plotting. He could go after Marik's friends or family. _No…no…he's not foolish enough to try the same ploy twice. _But he still wondered what Arkana might have in store for him next. Arkana had clearly meant this to be his endgame, so it would take him some time to form a new plan. But then again, that all depended upon if Marik even made it out of the police station…

"I guess they'll want to talk to me next…" Marik said dreadfully as Yugi came back into the waiting room.

"Yeah…" Yugi answered. "So, since everyone else left, do you think I could get a ride home from you?"

"Sure, if they don't throw me in jail first."

Yugi couldn't help but let the confusion show on his face. "It's not going to be that bad."

"Maybe not for you..." It was pretty clear what he meant by that. Yugi had never been a criminal master mind. "They saved me for last," Marik lowered his voice as not to be overheard. "They must have found something out about my past."

"Oh…" Yugi sat down next to Marik and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I don't think any of us said anything that would get you in trouble."

"Those Rare Hunters they caught will."

Yugi frowned. He couldn't argue with that. "Yeah well, they can't exactly press charges…at least I don't think…"

Marik, looking less than reassured, turned away from Yugi and cast his eyes downward. "Yugi, there's something I've been wondering for a long time…"

"What is it?"

"After everything I did to you…didn't you ever want revenge?"

Yugi dropped his arm and thought for a moment. "When you were threatening my friends…I think, in that moment, I probably hated you more than I ever hated anybody. Of all the enemies I faced, you were the only one who ever used my friends against me. And when I saw that Joey had been brainwashed, I don't think I have ever been angrier than I was then."

Yugi paused and Marik let that all sink in. He wasn't sure what he was expecting. Of course Yugi hated him. He knew that. After all he'd done to Yugi, why should he expect anything different? But it was something else to actually hear Yugi say it.

"But…"

Marik looked up, surprised. Yugi hated him, what more was there to say?

"But… I don't think I ever wanted to hurt you. I just wanted you to stop. I wanted you to see what you were doing was wrong and why it was wrong. I guess what I really wanted was for you to change. And you did. You stopped going after me and my friends, you fought against your evil half and in the end, I don't think I could have defeated it without you. So, I guess I got what I wanted."

Marik half smiled for a bit, but that smile quickly disappeared. "I didn't change that much, Yugi. Back there, I had Arkana in my hands. I thought he'd succeeded in killing Molly and I wanted to kill him. I wanted to make sure he hurt as badly as I did."

"But you didn't."

"If Arkana hadn't gotten away from me, I would have."

A silence fell over them for a while. It was Marik who finally broke it. "Yugi, last night you said Atem was the strong one of the two of you. I think you're wrong. You're the strong one, Yugi. You have the strength to forgive your enemies. I don't think I'll ever be that strong."

"Thanks Marik," Yugi said, thinking this over. "For what it's worth, I think even if Arkana hadn't gotten away, you would have done the right thing."

"Marik Ishtar," The police officer called from his office.

"Sounds like it's my turn," Marik said, standing up. "You think you'll come visit me in prison?" He asked with a half-joking smile.

"I'll bring you a cake with a nail file inside," Yugi answered with a similar smile.

Minutes later, Marik was sitting across a table from a police detective in a dimly lit room. Whatever nerves that were calmed by his conversation with Yugi were now back.

"Relax son, you're not under arrest," the detective said, going through his legal files.

Normally, Marik would have bristled at being called 'son' but right now he was too relieved. "Really?"

"Of course not," The detective said, nonchalantly. "In fact, from the story your friends told, it sounds like you're the hero."

"No officer, I'm no hero."

"Why not?"

"Because, none of this would have happened if it weren't for me."

"So I've heard." The detective said, taking a paper out of a manila folder. "According to the colorful statements of your friend Mr. Wheeler, 'Arkana's just some creepy bastard who wanted to get back at Marik for some ancient history.' Why don't you tell us it was Arkana wanted to get back at you for?"

Marik took a breath before answering. "This is going to sound crazy but, a couple of years ago, I was participating in the Battle City Tournament. Back then, I had something of a rivalry with Yugi and I made a bargain with Arkana. If Arkana knocked Yugi out of the tournament, I would find his ex-fiancé for him. After Arkana lost the duel, he found out that I never had any intention of keeping my promise."

"That hardly seems like a reason to turn to kidnapping and attempted homicide."

"I had a lot of misplaced anger back then. I treated him horribly. I treated everyone horribly, even my own brother…" Marik ran his hand on face for a second to collect himself.

"If all of this happened years ago, why would he wait until now?"

"I don't know," Marik answered honestly. "Maybe he was taking time to collect the other people I'd wronged to help him. I really can't say why he waited so long."

The detective looked at him thoughtfully before continuing. "Alright, I have one more question for you. If Arkana was after you, why would he bother taking Miss. Dillon?"

"Arkana places a high value on romantic love. I could tell that as soon as I met him. During our duel, he told me that I don't deserve to have that. He thinks I took away his chance at reuniting with his lost love, so he tried to take Molly away from me."

[-]

After leaving the police station, Marik drove Yugi back to campus. He dropped Yugi off, at their dorm and went back on the road. This time he was heading to Molly's house. He hadn't gotten to the chance to talk to her since that morning. The police questioned her first and then took her straight to the hospital. He found out from Tea that her parents met her at the hospital and took her home.

As he parked in the driveway and looked at the house, he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy at the normalcy of it all. He quickly dismissed these thoughts, though. He had more important things to worry about, like facing her parents.

He'd met them once before. It was on Halloween when he and all his friends went to the Red Tent to see Molly and Tea perform. But he that was back when they were just friends and her parents were so busy closing up for the season that they barely had time for an introduction.

Once at the door, he only hesitated a moment before ringing the doorbell. A tired-looking blonde woman answered the door. "Can I help you?" she asked, with some suspicion in her voice.

"I'm Marik…I was hoping I could talk to Molly," He answered.

Recognition passed over her face. "Oh, you are Marik. Come in, sweetie."

"Thank you." Marik was immediately uncomfortable upon entering the house. He could see from the expression on the woman's face that she'd heard all about today and what he'd supposedly done for her daughter. (And Molly never mentioned that her mother was the type to call perfect strangers "sweetie." What was that all about?)

"I'm Colleen, Molly's mom." She said holding out her hand.

He shook her hand and said "Nice to meet you." He was about to ask where Molly was but he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. He hoped it was Molly coming to end this awkward interaction. His hopes were dashed when he heard a male voice asking "Who was at the door?" Instead it was Molly's father. He wasn't sure how to react to Molly's father. From the way Molly talked about him, Marik was sure the man was nothing like his own father. But the man's alleged kindness did not change the fact that Marik had very little practice interacting with a normal father. Luckily, Molly's mother initiated the introduction for him.

"Tom, this is Marik, Molly's boyfriend." Molly's mother answered.

A soft smile came to the man's tired face as he stepped forward to shake Marik's hand. "So, you're the young man who saved my daughter."

"I guess I am," he answered, a bit uneasily.

Molly's mother moved to her husband, who put his arm around her. "We can't thank you enough for everything you did for her," she said.

Marik offered them a half smile, and hoped his discomfort wasn't coming across on his face. He didn't like the way they were looking at him. They were just so _grateful_. They looked at him like he was some kind of hero; like he was their daughter's knight in shining armor. Yet, if they knew what he really was, they'd never let him near her. "Can I see her now?" he asked. He just had to get out from under their admiring gaze.

"Yes, she's upstairs in her room," her father answered. He thanked them and slid past them toward the stair case.

Marik made his way up the stairs and as Molly's room came into view, he could see what appeared to be a big black fur rug piled up in front of her door. As he got closer, he realized it wasn't a rug; it was a dog. _Oh great, now there's a beast at the threshold…_he thought. So far today he'd faced a crazy magician, a deadly maze, and some utterly confused parents, all trying to get to her; and now this. Suddenly he felt some sympathy for those shining knights. Those poor guys must be constantly frustrated.

"He makes a poor guard dog." Marik mumbled as he watched the sleeping creature. Though it seemed he spoke too soon. The dog's ears immediately perked up upon hearing Marik's words. The dog stood up to its full, impressive size. It let out a few low barks, bounded forward, and landed its front paws on Marik's shoulders. Instead of proceeding to bite Marik's face off, as he fully expected, the dog sniffed him a few times and planted a big wet lick on Marik's eye. _Ferocious… _

"Mini, get down."

Molly! Finally! He could sort of see her over the dog's head.

"Mini, down," she commanded again. The dog got off of Marik's shoulders and went over to its owner. Molly stood in the doorway of her room. Her hair was wet and she was dressed like she was ready for bed despite it being only a little past 7. He didn't blame her though. She looked exhausted. "Sorry about that, she just loves making new friends. Come in," she said casually, as if absolutely nothing traumatic happened to her in the last 24 hours.

She turned to go into her room with her dog and Marik followed. She sat on the bed while Marik stood awkwardly by the door. She didn't say anything or do anything. She just mechanically ran her hand through the dog's fur with a blank expression on her face. He tried not to judge her odd behavior, but he was expecting some sort of reaction. He was expecting her to talk or cry or something. It wasn't like her to be so numb. "What happened at the hospital?" he asked, hoping to ease into the subject that was on both of their minds.

She sighed before answering. "They just gave me some oxygen and ran some tests."

Marik nodded before continuing. "Listen…" he started, deciding to get right to the crux of the matter. "There are some things I need to explain about what happened…"

"Yugi said Arkana was after you." She said, looking up from her dog's face.

"Yeah..." he said, sitting down next to her. "What else did Yugi tell you?"

"Nothing…" she said suspiciously. "Why?"

"Molly…" he let out a breath and hesitated for moment before continuing, "I need to explain some things about Arkana and why he went after you."

"Okay…" she answered in anticipation.

"Arkana is an old dueling rival of mine." Marik could hardly believe that came out of his mouth. He came up here with every intention of telling her the truth, and yet here he was lying again. But the lie rolled off his tongue so easily he continued with it. "He wanted to settle our score, so he took you in order to force me to duel him again."

Molly looked at him, shocked. "So, he tried to kill me over a card game?" She said slowly and indignantly.

"It's more complicated than that." The words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them, and worse, he said them in a defensive tone he wished he could take back. Getting defensive was a dead giveaway that you were lying; he knew that. He wanted to slap himself twice: once for lying and once more for executing it so poorly. "I was at the Battle City Tournament in Domino a few years ago. At that tournament, I made a deal with him. If he dueled someone for me, I told him I'd help him find his ex-fiancé. He upheld his end of the bargain but, I never had any intention of upholding mine…and Arkana knew it."

Molly was quite for a moment. "Was her name Catharine?" She asked

"Yes…" Marik answered, surprised. "Did he talk about her?"

Molly nodded quietly. "At one point, he started to look at me weird. He even called me Catharine. Then he snapped out of it. It only lasted for a few seconds but it was so strange. For those few seconds, he thought I was Catharine."

Well this was certainly news to Marik. All through their duel, Arkana seemed so lucid. The man obviously knew what he was doing. But still, with this new information, he had to wonder. Could it be that Arkana was slowly losing his mind?

"I'm_ sorry_. I didn't mean to…"

"Sorry?" she cut him off. "Sorry for what? You fought Arkana for me. You saved me. I owe you…"

"No," It was his turn to cut her off. "You don't owe me anything. It was my fault that you were in that position in the first place. I…" Even though he was mid-sentence, Molly got up and led her dog out of the room. "What are you doing?" he asked when she closed the door again.

She answered by putting her lips on his. She sat back down on the bed. As they got deeper into the kiss, she began to lower herself onto the bed and Marik lowered himself on top of her. The logical part of his brain protested that this was neither the time nor the place but the rest of him wasn't listening. Every reasonable protest was thwarted by a new sensation. _She's only doing it because she thinks she owes me. _She started taking off his leather jacket. _Her parents are right down stairs. _She let his hands wander beneath her shirt and feel her smooth skin. _Shouldn't I be remembering something about birth control? _She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer. No sensible thought was able to reach him. Not until he felt her hands reach up the back of his shirt, dangerously close to his scars.

He broke the kiss, used one hand to remove her hands from his back, and used the other to push himself off of her. "I'm sorry, I can't," he whispered. It wasn't that he wasn't ready for this. He sometimes wondered how it would happen and when. But even in his fantasies it did not happen until he worked up the courage to tell her about his past. So, in a way, he wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to answer every painful question that would come from letting her see his scars.

"What's wrong?" She asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

"I just can't do this. Not tonight." He answered. He looked at her for a moment. She was just so blissfully unaware of the evils in his past or the terrible person he used to be. She was the only person in his life who never knew him at his worst. He didn't feel the same lingering guilt around her that he felt with the others. He didn't feel the constant need to prove himself worthy of the second chance he'd been given. She only knew him as he was now, and that was far too precious for him to give up yet.

He rolled off of her, giving her room to sit up. "Well, why not?" she asked. "Most guys would be like 'let's do this.'"

"Let's do this?" Marik half-scoffed half-laughed. "Well that's romantic."

She began to laugh too. "Yeah, looks like that's my move, though." She joked. "Worse, I'd be like 'Geronimo!'"

He laughed along with her, happy that she'd maintained her sense of humor. But the laughter soon died down. Once she knew the truth about him, he feared they would no longer have moments like this.

Turning serious again, he took her hand. "Molly, there's still a lot that I need to explain," he began. Though, he wasn't sure how to transition into _…and I'm not ready to tell you any of it_ without sounding like a coward.

Thankfully, Molly spoke up before he did. "Yes, there's something I've been meaning to tell you too. You may have noticed that I don't talk about my brother much…"

Come to think of it, she didn't. And where was her brother anyway? Why wasn't he here comforting her? If anything like this happened to Marik's siblings, he'd swim back to Egypt if he had to.

"It's because he's not around anymore. He died when we were fourteen." She continued, her hand wandering up to the diamond she wore around her neck. "When I turned fifteen, my first birthday without him, my parents gave me this necklace. It's our birthstone and I wear it to remind myself of him…that's also when we got Mini."

Marik couldn't help but feel a little ashamed of himself. Here he was criticizing someone he'd never met who turned out to be dead. It did not help that he was at a loss for comforting words. What does one say when their girlfriend tells them her brother died five years ago? "I'm sorry…" was the best he could come up with.

"You don't have to keep apologizing," she said, offering him a half-smile. "None of this is your fault."

"No, it is."

"How? You never did anything like he did."

Marik had to stop a humorless laugh in his throat. _How untrue that is… _he thought bitterly_. _

"Marik, of all that 'explaining' you say needs to be done, can you at least tell me one thing?" She asked after a moment of quiet. Marik held his breathe, wondering what it might be. "You did win the duel, right?"

He felt an involuntary smile spread across his face. He would not mind telling this part of the story. He told her about the duel and Arkana's charade with the mystic box. He told her about the maze Arkana forced him through. He finished by telling her about his confrontation with Arkana in the control room.

When he finished his story, he could see that Molly was getting tired and, as she pointed out, so was he. They left her room and went to the front door to say goodbye, the dog following closely at Molly's heels.

"Did I thank you yet?" she asked when they got to the door.

"Not in words…" he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I think you thanked me enough anyway."

"Well, thank you," she said, giving him one last kiss.

They said goodbye and Marik went out the door, but the dog got out before the door closed.

"Mini, come back!" she shouted, running out after it. She managed to catch it by the collar before it could get very far. Still, the dog sniffed the ground, jumped onto its hind legs, and barked into the darkness. "Mini, stop! Down!" she commanded, trying to keep hold of Mini's collar. The dog ceased its jumping, but continued to bark and growl threateningly. "Calm down, girl, what's gotten into you?"

Marik shot a glance at her and she glanced back. From her look, he could tell they were both thinking the same thing. "It's probably nothing," he said, though neither of them believed it.

"Are you going to be okay driving back?" she asked, still trying to console her dog.

"Yes, I should be fine," he answered. _They wouldn't attack again so soon, not with the police involved now. _

"Alright…" she looked skeptical. "Let me know if you got back safe, okay?"

"Sure," he answered. He got on his bike and began driving away. He saw Molly go back in the house, safe. He wasn't worried about the rare hunters attacking her in her home. They were after him, and if he left, he knew they would follow him.

[-]

As he drove back, he was both surprised and a bit worried that he could find no signs that Rare Hunters followed him. His first concern was that they stayed at Molly's house. When he got back to campus, the first thing he did was call Molly, as he promised. To his relief, she was fine and no one seemed to be disturbing her home. She did tell him Mini kept barking at the front door for a good five minutes after he left, but stopped either because she got bored or because the perceived threat was gone. This calmed Marik's nerves some, but he was still worried. If the Rare Hunters weren't following him, or stalking Molly, where did they go?

After he hung up with Molly, he found a quiet corner of his dorm building, not an easy task on a Saturday night, and dialed again. He knew this was going to be a long call and he didn't want to be overheard. He'd missed his nightly calls to his siblings the last two nights and knew they must be worried. He didn't even bother checking to see if it was a reasonable hour in Cairo. He just needed to hear their voices.

"Hi Odion … Yes, I'm fine, kind of …Is Ishizu there? ... Good, there's a lot I need to tell you both."


	11. The Truth

Chapter 11

_Marik wandered through a dark abyss looking for any sign of life, or light, or really anything besides inky blackness. He could hear the sound of two people having a conversation, although he couldn't see them or make out what they were saying. Finally he saw two figures, a man and a woman, talking. As he got closer, he could see that the woman was Molly, and she looked upset. He went up to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Molly, what's wrong?"_

_She turned to him with tears in her eyes. Her face quickly changed from shock to disgust. "Get away from me you monster!" she cried as she pushed past him. _

"_Molly, come back," he called, but he was too late. She already disappeared into the blackness. _

"_What did you say to her?" he demanded as he turned furiously toward the man she was talking to. Though, when he turned, he came face to face with his 16 year old self. _

"_What do you mean?" his past self answered, wearing the same malicious smirk he'd worn during Battle City. "I only told her the truth about us."_

"_No, you did something else. You twisted the truth. Don't forget, I know you," Marik answered. _I was you.

_His past-self laughed wickedly. "There was no need to twist the truth." With that, he turned around and started off into the darkness. _

"_Where are you going?" Marik shouted at his past-self. _

"_I'm going to follow that girl for a while," his past-self tossed over his shoulder. _

"_Leave her alone!" Marik shouted furiously. _

_His past-self smirked. "If I am to leave her alone, you must as well," he said as he arrogantly walked backed to Marik. "I already haunt the minds of your friends and family. Why not her?" He did not stop until they were practically nose to nose. "Don't you know they see me, every time they look at you?"_

_Marik's hand instinctively balled into a fist. He moved to punch his past-self right in his smug mouth, but his past-self vanished before that could happen. _

_He then felt a strong, steady hand clamp down on his shoulder. The familiar touch was comforting, until the hand shoved him harshly to the ground. After he hit the ground, he turned his head to see that it was his brother who shoved him. To Marik the man seemed to be ten feet tall and he wore a hate-filled expression that was extremely rare on his face. "Odion," Marik started, turning around to face him, "what is wrong, my brother?" _

"_You," Odion stated accusingly. "You are a curse on my life."_

_Marik could only look back, shocked, as tears filled his eyes. _

"_You have brought shame on all of us," a new voice said. _

_Marik recognized this voice as well, although the harsh tone was a bit unusual. "Sister?"_

_Ishizu, who looked almost as tall as Odion, stepped out of the shadows. "We can never forgive you for you everything you put us through."_

"_No!" the tears began spilling out of Marik's eyes. "Sister, brother, I can never express how sorry I am. I will set things right. I know I can never fully repay you for everything you've done for me, but I will do what I can. I will make you proud of me again, I promise. But please let me have your forgiveness. I-I don't think I can live without it." _

_Suddenly, he was surrounded by his friends; all unusually tall, and all with angry expressions on their faces. "How could anyone possibly forgive you?" Yugi said. _

"_No, please friends…"_

"_Friends?" Joey scoffed, "We're not your friends."_

"_We never want to see you again," Ishizu said coldly._

_One by one, his friends and family began disappearing into the darkness. "Wait, come back," Marik called after them, even though he knew he could do nothing to stop them. Soon he was left alone in the dark._

Marik started awake. He felt his heart pounding and some sweat dampened his hairline. This wasn't the first time he had this nightmare, though he hadn't had it in a while and this was the first time it included Molly. He had it frequently immediately after Battle City. It became less frequent as time went on and he worked through his turmoil. They stopped completely once he helped the pharaoh, Atem, move on into the afterlife. This was the first time he had it since he came to Domino.

He looked at the clock, 5:00AM. The room was still dark and Yugi was still asleep. Marik lay back down and thought about the upcoming day. Molly was coming back to school after the week at home her parents insisted upon. After he shied away from telling Molly the truth last week, he promised himself he'd do it when she got back. _So maybe that's why the dream came back_, he thought. His recent ordeal with Arkana opened some old wounds. The prospect of finally revealing his past to Molly didn't help. She must have a lot of questions about what exactly happened and the decent thing to do would be to tell her the whole truth. But then again…

Molly did seem pretty satisfied with his vague explanation of his past with Arkana. If she asked for specifics, he would answer her, of course, but she didn't exactly need to know the rest of the story just yet, right?

[-]

"Hey, look who's back," Joey called as Molly and Tea sat down at their table. "How do you like being back in class?"

Molly opened her mouth to answer but she was interrupted by someone at a near-by table whispering "I think that's the kidnapped girl," to their friend.

Her face fell into a frown. "Well, I got a cool new nick name," she answered resentfully.

Marik nodded sympathetically. He too gained some notoriety through this ordeal, though anyone would call him crazy to complain about it. The media jumped all over the bizarre case. They spun the story in a way that made Marik look much more heroic than he felt.

"By the way, I baked some cupcakes," Molly said putting a bakery box down on the table. "They're to say thank you for…you know."

"You didn't have to do that," Yugi said, getting a cupcake out of the box.

"I wanted to. So…" she turned to Marik, "Have you gotten any calls from reporters?"

"Yes," Mairk grunted. He got calls alright. His friends did as well. After a while, they all gave a comment or two, but Marik continued to stay silent. In fact, he took to blocking every call that wasn't from his friends or his siblings. "Have you talked to them?"

"I didn't really want to at first, but after a while I decided to say something just to make that go away," she answered.

The others began telling their annoying reporter stories, but Marik wasn't listening to any of them. He looked across the table at Molly. She didn't appear to be listening either, though she at least pretended to be. Momentarily she glanced back at Marik. Their eyes locked for a second but Molly's immediately flitted away. Her cheeks reddened and she looked down, rubbing her arm. What was she so embarrassed about? _She must know something about me_, he thought. Maybe she knew more about Battle City, but how? It was true that anyone could go online and look up the results of the finals, but that didn't amount to much more than a bracket with the final life point counts on it. There was no way she could know about the Rare Hunters or his dark half without someone telling her about it. One of his friends might have told her, though he strongly doubted it. Perhaps Arkana told her a lot more than she let on. _Or maybe she just knows I've been lying to her. _

"Yeah, I'd better go too."

Molly's voice jarred him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Bakura already standing up, about to leave for class, and Molly getting up as well.

"But, you just got here," Bakura said, utterly confused.

"Well, yeah, but I have my kinesiology class in that building so I figured we could walk together."

"Okay, but we've never walked together before…"

"That's because it's not for another hour, but I figured I could get some studying done before class. I'm kind of behind right now."

Bakura cast confused looks at his friends who only responded with a few shrugs. "Alright then, see you guys." They said their good-byes and walked away.

"Well that was weird," Joey said as soon as they were out of ear shot.

"Yeah, I didn't know Molly was a level five clinger," Duke added.

"Will you guys cut it out," Tea said, slamming her drink on the table. "Obviously she's still freaked about what happened."

"It probably didn't help that Marik told her the truth," Yugi added. "You did tell her, didn't you?" Yugi turned a suspicious eye on Marik.

"Yeah," Marik answered, turning away from him. "I told her when I went to her house after I dropped you off here. I thought I told you that."

"Really?" Tristan asked, surprised. "And she didn't, I don't know, kick your ex-criminal butt out of her house?"

"I guess she just accepted my explanation," Marik retorted. He stared directly into Tristan's eyes letting him know this conversation was over.

But he could still feel Yugi's eyes on him, reminding him that this was most certainly not over.

[-]

The simultaneous buzz of their cell phones tore Molly and Tea away from the sitcom rerun they were mindlessly watching. They didn't have to look at their phones to know it was their jazz teacher reminding them to do their daily workout assignment.

"Partner leg rises," Tea said after a quick glance at her phone. "You want to go first?"

"Nah, you're closer to the ground," Molly answered climbing down from her top bunk. "You go first."

Tea lay down on her back, straightened her legs, pointed her toes and lifted them toward the ceiling. Molly stood behind her head and pushed the legs back down. Tea stopped them before that touched the floor and brought them back up.

"Who'd you do partner work outs with while I was away?" Molly asked, repeating the action.

"Oh just some people from class," Tea answered. "You?"

"My mom helped me out with the partner stretches," Molly answered.

"Oh…" Tea paused for a moment before finally mentioning "So, I noticed you were acting a little weird in the Café today."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you completely zoned out of the conversations, you pretty much clung to Bakura when he tried to leave, and you barely even looked at Marik."

"I guess I'm still sorting everything out, okay?" Molly answered defensively. "I used to think stuff like that only happened in comic books or on cop shows. I mean, Arkana was like a silver-age Batman villain or something."

"Okay, so Marik-"

"Ugh, I'm still embarrassed about what happened that night." Molly stopped pushing down Tea's legs and stepped away. "You're done. It's my turn."

The girls switched places and Tea continued their conversation. "What happened on what night?" She asked.

"On the night of the whole Arkana thing, he came to see me. We started talking about it` and I just felt like I needed to repay him somehow," Molly said apprehensively. "So, I pretty much threw myself at him and he turned me down."

"He turned you down, really?" Tea asked, surprised. Honestly, she gained a little more respect for Marik. She encountered way too many guys who would have taken advantage of that situation.

"Yeah, it was kind of abrupt too. I mean we were really getting into it. He was getting a little under-the-shirt action so I started running my hand up his back and that's when he just stopped. He even took my hands off of him, it was weird," she answered.

"Uh huh…" Tea let out suspiciously. Just like that, the extra respect was gone.

"Yeah, honestly it was probably for the best. It's not like we had protection or anything," Molly went on, not noticing the suspicion in her friend's voice.

"Molly, what exactly did you and Marik talk about?" Tea asked, looking for more information, "I mean, about Arkana."

Molly thought for a second before answering. "He started by asking me about the hospital, and then he said he needed to explain some things about Arkana and what happened."

"Good, go on…"

"And then he said Arkana was an old dueling rival of his. He said that during a tournament they made a deal where if Arkana dueled someone for him, he would help Arkana find his ex-fiancé. Then Marik fell down on his side of the deal so I guess Arkana wanted revenge."

"And that's all he told you?" Tea asked. If the answer was 'yes' her suspicions would be confirmed

"Yeah," Molly answered. "Listen, I think I'm done. We're only supposed to do fifty leg-raises and so far I've counted sixty-three."

Tea was distracted by her thoughts but Molly's voice brought her out of it. "Oh, right, I'm sorry," She said, stepping away from Molly and toward the door. "I'll be right back."

[-]

"So, do you guys think Molly has anymore cupcakes?" Duke wondered as he lay on Marik's bed flipping through a gaming magazine. Marik sat at his desk reexamining the forged duel monsters cards and Yugi sat on his bed going over some notes.

No one had the chance to answer Duke, as Tea suddenly burst through their door. "What is the matter with you?" She shouted pointing an accusing finger at Marik.

All he could do was stare dumbly back at her. "Uhh…"

"Ugh, I can't believe you. You are such an ass!"

"I-I'm sure you're right but why?" He was still completely lost.

"You never came clean to Molly," she retorted.

Marik's face hardened. _Not this again._ "I told her everything she needs to know."

"You're lying."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do," she shot back. "I know that you and Molly almost slept together the night you visited her. And I know you stopped as soon as she put her hands on your back."

"Did Molly tell you-?"

"Whoa, hold on," Duke interrupted. "I'm the one who actually pulled her out of the death closet and all I got was a cupcake. He wins a duel and he gets to sleep with her?"

Tea rolled her eyes. "Duke, if you wanted another cupcake, all you had to do was ask."

"Oh, thanks," he said, dropping the insulted act. "Good luck man" he said to Marik as he picked up his magazine and left.

"Now, back to you…" Tea said focusing her attention back on Marik. "Molly told me what you told her about Arkana. I think we all know it wasn't the whole truth."

"Like I said, I told her what was important for her to know," Marik retorted.

"Oh really?" Tea scoffed. "Don't you think it's important for her to know that Arkana and his goons are dangerous career criminals? Or why they are all going after you?"

Marik looked away from her. He knew she was poking holes in his argument, which he had to admit was flimsy at best. He looked toward Yugi who was looking at him with an odd mix of scolding and disappointment.

"Marik, listen," Yugi began as he got up and moved to take his place beside Tea. "Right now Molly is confused and scared and I know you are too. But the difference is that you know exactly what you're up against and you can guard yourself against it."

"We know you're just trying to protect her," Tea added. "But keeping the truth from her is only making her more vulnerable to Arkana. She needs to know what's going on so that she can better protect herself."

Marik could feel the guilt rising in him. He knew they were right and he'd thought the same things himself. He just did not want to admit it. _I'll lose her _was his secret, selfish reason for keeping the truth from her. _Once I tell her, she'll think I'm a monster. _He turned back toward his desk and ran a hand through his bangs. "I can't fully explain it unless I start at the beginning."

He could feel a supportive hand on his back. When he turned his head, he saw that it was Yugi.

"Well then, that's just what you're going to have to do."

[-]

Molly grabbed her phone and her keys and threw them in her purse. She wasn't sure she'd need the purse or the phone, but she decided to take them anyway. All Marik told her was that they needed to talk and to meet him in his room. She wasn't sure what it was about but she had a pretty good idea. It was probably about Arkana. She got the impression that there was more to the story.

She was about to leave when Yugi came into her room. "Hey Molly," Yugi greeted her warmly.

"Hey Yugi, I'm about to leave, but Tea should be back from her night class soon," she answered. "I'm about to go see Marik so…"

"About that, Molly…" Yugi began. "I know Marik has a lot to tell you tonight. I think you should know that it's going to be hard for him to say and some of it may even be hard to hear. It may even be hard to believe or seem crazy. But whatever he tells you, however impossible it may seem, if you asked any of us we'd vouch for him."

If she wasn't nervous before, she certainly was now. "What exactly is he going to tell me?"

"I've actually said too much already," Yugi answered. "Just remember, my friends and I already know most of what he's going to tell you, and we gave him a second chance."

_Okay…that's unsettling… _"Thanks for the talk Yugi. You really calmed my nerves."

"I did?"

Molly shrugged and offered him a sheepish grin. "Eh…not really, but thanks for trying anyway."

[-]

Marik paced around his room nervously. Any second now, Molly would be here and he'd have to tell her everything. He went over what he was going to say in his head again. It was strange; he was usually a very smooth talker when he needed to be. During his years in the criminal world, he could talk men much older and much more experienced into joining him. He'd even been able to talk the spirit of the millennium ring into working alongside him (though he would always wonder if the spirit only pretended to play along).

This was different though. He was never quite able to work his charms on his siblings the way he could with others. He could still be fairly persuasive, but he'd never been able to out-right lie to them. Nowadays, he found himself occasionally tripping over his tongue when talking to his friends. Most recently, he found himself at his least convincing toward Molly when attempting to pass off the partial truth of what happened between him and Arkana as the whole story.

He thought back to the day he met her. He lied to her then too. His half-truths, though necessary then, rolled off his tongue much easier. Most likely this was because he did not know her well and didn't really care about her as much as he did now. _It's much harder to lie to people you care about._

He heard the door open and turned to see Molly standing in the doorway. She looked nervous and uncomfortable. "You wanted to talk to me?" she said soberly.

Marik frowned. This wasn't his Molly. She didn't greet him with her usual exuberance. Her eyes were desolate and her voice was lifeless. Where was her bright smile or her boundless energy? He felt the anger rise at Arkana all over again. He'd done this to her. _Or maybe, I've done this to her._

"Marik?" she spoke again. "You okay?"

"Yes," he answered. He pulled her in and kissed her for what he thought may be the last time. "I need to tell you something very important."

"Is it about Arkana?"

"Sort of," he answered as they sat down on his bed. "It's more about how we got to this point. I've been meaning to tell you for some time. It's going to be a long story and it'll probably be hard to take in. All I ask is that you hear me out and please let me finish."

"Alright," she said with a nod.

Marik took a deep breath and then began. He had trouble finding words at first, but once got started the words poured out of him. He heard his own voice crack when he talked about the way his father treated him and his siblings. At that point, he felt Molly slip her hand into his. He looked up at her. Her eyes were full of compassion and kindness. She gave him a soft, sad smile, letting him know it was okay to go on. So far, she still cared about him.

Her hand remained with his as he told her about receiving the ritual and his first day on the surface. His grip unconsciously tightened when he told her about his father's death. All he explained was that he blacked out and when he woke up he found his father dead and a spirit telling him that it was the pharaoh's will. He'd done this purposefully. Not only was he not ready to explain about his dark, other personality, but he hoped that if she heard the story from his point of view, she would be more understanding of the wrongs he committed.

He dropped her hand before getting into his years in the criminal world, mostly to spare himself the pain of her ripping it away herself. He then moved on to Battle City. In some ways it was harder for him to speak of this than of the things his dark half did. There was no separate consciousness to hide behind, no loss of control. The things he did during Battle City, every treacherous plot, every attempt on Yugi's life was his doing. There was no one else to blame but him.

He couldn't bear to look at her from this point on. He knew what he'd see. Shock, disgust, anger, possibly hatred; these were what he felt when thought back to the way he acted in Battle City, why shouldn't she?

Of course he eventually reached the part of the story where his dark half took over. He knew this would definitely be the hardest part of the story for her to swallow. It wasn't every day that you heard about someone's magically-enhanced mental disorder taking over their body and attempting to destroy anything with a pulse. But still he continued on, not even bothering to look at her shocked and skeptical expression.

He told her next about how he heard the truth about his father's death. Then how, despite being expelled from his own body, he still made attempts to defeat his dark half. Finally he was able to tell her about the duel that cast his evil half into the darkness.

Maybe it was because he was remembering that day and recalling the courage his brother had given him, but at this point Marik finally worked up the nerve to look at her. He saw exactly what he expected. She looked she looked so unnerved. Her eyes were wide and she was visibly shaken. He quickly looked away. He wanted to stop to reassure her that he wasn't the same person he was then. But there was still some story left to tell, so he continued.

He told her about how he readjusted to living with his family again and about breaking his ties with the Rare Hunters. He told her about how he and his family helped the pharaoh regain his lost memories and move on to the afterlife. He finished by telling her that the Rare Hunters stalked him for some time before they enacted their ultimate plan.

"Molly, I know that this is a lot to take in," Marik said reaching for her hand again. She cautiously pulled away from him. It was like a punch in the gut. It was what he'd feared. She didn't just hate him, she was afraid of him. "I don't know if you hate me right now, or you think I'm crazy. I know how this whole story must sound to you but, I can prove it."

He stood up with his back turned to her. He took one more breath and then removed his shirt, allowing her to see the scars on his back. He wasn't sure whether or not to explain. He'd already told her about the marks so she could probably figure out for herself what he was showing her.

He didn't have much time to contemplate this as he was startled by a hand timidly brushing over the scars. "It's true…" he heard her whisper.

"Don't!" he cried as he flinched away from her touch. Without thinking, he whirled around, grabbed her wrist and yanked it away from him. "Don't touch them."

Every hurt emotion was written on her face: sadness, confusion, anger…the fear was what hurt him the most. "Let go."

It wasn't until this moment that he realized just how painfully tight his grip was. He loosened his grip and she wrenched her hand free. She turned away from him and grabbed her bag.

"Molly, wait. I wasn't thinking. I-"

"I have to go." She fled for the door.

"I never meant to hurt you. I-" The door slammed in his face. Defeated, he dropped his eyes and leaned his forehead against the door. "I'm sorry."

[-]

Molly burst through the door to her dorm room in a frantic whirl. Her hands shook as she put her bag on her desk and took a long swig from her water bottle. Yugi and Tea dropped the card game they were playing.

"Molly, you okay?" Tea asked walking up to her.

"Me? Are _you_ okay?" Molly placed her hands on either side of Tea's head. "Are you hearing any voices? Get any blank spots in your memory recently?"

"What?" Tea took Molly's hands off of her head. "_I'm_ fine."

Molly looked at Yugi strangely. "What about you? Any other ancient pharaohs floating around in there?" she asked, pointing at his head.

"Nope, just the one," he answered batting her finger away. He and Tea exchanged a knowing glance. _Yup, he definitely told her this time._

"Molly, calm down," Tea said placing her hands on the girl's shoulders. "We know what Marik told you and it's okay to freak out a little."

"A little?" Molly exclaimed. "Did you know about the career criminal-ing or the split personality-slash-evil spirit-type thing?"

"Actually, I think his dark half started as a split personality but with Marik's excessive use of the millennium rod, some magic seeped into him and the dark half started splintering off into its own separate being," Yugi attempted to explain. "I'm not sure if he gained his own soul though. It's pretty complicated."

Molly paused and stared at him blankly for a moment before bursting, "What?!"

"It's just a theory."

"I'm surprised you even believe any of this," Tea said. "I didn't believe it myself at first."

"I didn't either," Molly answered. "But then he showed me the scars on his back and – oh my God have you seen the scars?"

"Yeah, we all have," Yugi answered. "Well, except for Bakura, but he knows about them.

"There's no way he could have done that himself." Molly sank down onto Tea's bunk. "I couldn't even imagine why he'd want to do that to himself. His explanation had to be true. And if his story about the scar was true, what's stopping the rest from being true?" She groaned and flopped back onto the mattress. "He was in charge of the people who tried to kill me."

Tea sat down on the bed next to her and rubbed her side affectionately. "You know he has no affiliations with them anymore, right?"

"No, but he did. It's like this…" She sat up to face her friends. "What if I was never with Marik and I came up to you one day and said 'Hey Tea, I met this awesome guy today, except he used to sacrifice puppies to Cthulhu but he doesn't anymore.' Would you seriously be able tell me to give him a shot?"

"Honestly, no…" Tea agreed uncomfortably, "but this is different."

"How?" Molly burst. "How is this any different?"

"Because we know Marik," Yugi said with great conviction. He didn't like anyone thinking badly of one of his friends. It was true that after Battle City, he'd been distrusting of Marik himself. His distrust of him lessened after the Egypt trip, but he still did not know Marik very well. Now he saw who Marik truly became. In short, he was a young man with many regrets who strived to make up for his past and to prove himself every day. Yugi truly trusted this man and saw him as a friend, and it hurt to know someone saw him as a threat.

"I thought I knew him too, but then he told me what he did…" she suddenly turned to Tea, "what he did to you…"

Tea grimaced. She'd hoped that wouldn't come up, because she had no real retort.

"…and what he did to you too," Molly said turning her attention Yugi who grimaced as well. "You guys were there. How can you just get over that?"

"I think it's because we were there," Yugi started uncertainly. "We got to see the change in him with our own eyes and we got to see that it was genuine."

Molly, still looking unconvinced, lay back down on the mattress and turned away from them. "Do people really change that much?"

Yugi went to her and put a reassuring hand of her shoulder. "Marik did."

[-]

The next morning, Marik packed his books in his messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. He didn't particularly want to go to class today, but he was hoping that, in a way, class could give his mind a break. If his mind was preoccupied with whatever the professor was teaching, he wouldn't have to think about Molly.

"You feeling okay?" Yugi asked.

Marik let out a small sigh and replied with a tired smile and a nod. Sometime after Molly left him the night before, Yugi came back up. He'd wanted to analyze the situation and think of ways to get Molly to come around, but Marik didn't want to do any of that. The truth was he'd already given it plenty of thought. He was reasonably confident that if he compartmentalized and dusted off that old silver tongue of his, he would be able to manipulate her into staying with him. But he didn't want her that way. He did not want a hollow shell of Molly to stay with him out of obligation or manipulation. But still, to have her close again…

He shook the wishful thoughts out of his head. As tempting as it was to sway her back to his side, he'd already resolved to allow Molly to process everything at her own pace. That she would decide on her own to accept his past misdeeds and return to him, may be too much to hope for.

With a half-hearted goodbye to Yugi, Marik left their room, only to find Molly nervously fidgeting a few feet away from their door. "Molly?" He walked carefully up to her. "What are you doing here?" He didn't mean to sound so accusatory, but he was sure she would at least avoid him for a while.

"I'm sorry I ran out on you last night," she began unsteadily.

"It's okay. I understand why you did it."

"No, it's not okay," she yelled suddenly. "I don't know if it's okay to-" She cut herself off.

"Okay to what?" Marik asked, anxious to find out where she was going.

"Nothing," she answered composing herself the best she could, but there was still a touch of emotion in her voice that she could not hide. "I just don't know what to make of all of this. Up until now you've never given me a reason to distrust you, but last night, you gave me every reason. You admitted last night you were a master manipulator and could make anyone believe anything. You said you could get anything you wanted this way. How can I know that you never did that to me? And what is it you want from me anyway?"

Her words stung him, but he wasn't sure if he let it show on his face. Gently, he took her hand in his. "In the beginning, I wanted your friendship and perhaps your affection, but right now, all I ask is for your compassion."

"You see, this is just it." She ripped her hand away; she may as well of slapped him in the face. "I want to believe you, but how do I know you're not manipulating me?"

Marik had no retort for this. "How can I prove it to you?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I wish there was way to know for sure."

"You'd just have to trust me," he said as if there was no hope of that happening.

They stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity. He waited for her to officially end it but instead he felt her hand cautiously take his. "I want to give you a chance," she murmured.

"What?" he breathed, looking up in surprise.

"I'm not sure what the 'right' choice is," she began, bringing their hands up, "but I don't it's fair for me to leave you over something you've been forgiven for." She finished with a soft, but unsure, smile.

Even though he could hear the uncertainty in her voice, and even though he could deduce the real reasons she returned to him, he smiled and gave her hand a light squeeze, content to blindly continue with her pleasant charade.

[-]

In a dark, condemned motel on the edge of Domino City, Arkana sat in his makeshift office wondering where he went wrong. He accounted for every possible detail, or so he thought. He was hoping their duel would have an audience, so he made sure they knew he had their friend hostage. He hid the girl in a closet at the basement of the theater that was difficult to find if one did not know their way. His indirect method of murder wouldn't cause a loud struggle that would alert the girl's friends of her location. In the event that Marik won the duel, he set up a maze that should have lead Marik to his demise. So then why was he still alive while Arkana was left unsatisfied?

He was worse than unsatisfied, he was a failure. He didn't just lose the duel and his shot at Marik, but also half of his operation. It hadn't been a very large organization to begin with. Of the ex-Rare Hunters he could find, only twelve were willing to join his scheme. After yesterday's disaster, five were arrested and two ran off and hadn't returned, leaving him with five. He could feel that those five were also frustrated with the situation, and why shouldn't they be? Through all the waiting, all the planning, and all the hard work… the only way he could keep them going was by promising that deceitful little worm, Marik, would be crushed.

At that moment, Arkana's remaining henchmen stalked into his office without so much as a knock. "Boss, we need to talk," said the tall bald man in the center who was clearly the ringleader of this little meeting.

"Make this quick," Arkana growled. The sooner he could get back to his plotting, the sooner he could have Marik in his clutches.

"Very well, we're out."

"What?!" Arkana abruptly stood up and slammed his hands on the desk in front of him.

"We lost over half our operation when your plan failed," the ringleader explained. "Another one of your schemes is not worth going to jail over."

"I can't believe what I am hearing," Arkana shouted. "If you'll recall, Marik's plans also failed on occasion."

"And yet no one was ever caught," the ringleader argued.

"Don't you remember how cruelly he treated us?" Arkana shot back. "Don't you remember how vicious his punishments were? He insulted and demeaned you all and then he abandoned you when he was done. Don't you want revenge for any of that?"

The leader shook his head. "Not badly enough. None of us are willing to go to jail for that punk."

"If you got caught, you wouldn't be going to jail for him. You'd be going to jail for vengeance against him," Arkana argued.

"Frankly, I don't see the difference," The leader retorted.

"Plus, I think that girl has a pet bear," the Rare hunter with grey hair chimed in.

"You can't just abandon the plan!" Arkana shouted, ignoring the other rare hunter.

"The plan failed," the leader argued. "We aren't willing to risk another failure. Good Bye, sir."

With that the ex-rare hunters walked out, leaving Arkana alone in the dark.

* * *

**Oh my God this is finally up! This is a long one and I've been working on it for a while. I have literally been 3 lines away from finishing this for a week, but then something happened. I got Bells of Notre Dame (from disney's Hunchback) stuck in my head, so I watched a video on youtube and I've had Clopin Trouillefou bouncing around in my head planting plot bunnies ever since. Anyway, I hope it was worth the wait.**


	12. Catherine

Chapter 12

Arkana adjusted the hood of his jacket so that it provided as much coverage of his unmasked face as possible. For once he did not curse the horrible scars he'd received from his accident. They actually helped him hide. Not a single photograph of his disfigured face existed, so the police had nothing to identify him with. Though he still considered the scars an insult to his once hansom face, they did provide him with the perfect disguise. He couldn't wear a mask now. It'd be too much of an identifier; a red flag. The story of his battle with Marik had spread through the media like wild fire. People liked a classic story he supposed. The charismatic hero rescues the beautiful damsel and the horrible disfigured monster is forced to run away in defeat. Now the police were running around looking for said disfigured monster. It made him sick. If only they knew the real story; that their hero was in reality a despicable manipulator with a criminal past and that their damsel was nothing but a shallow little pawn. Then they'd know who the real monsters were.

He scoffed as he attempted to temporarily rid his mind of these thoughts. He'd taken this walk to clear his mind and think of his next step. He walked down a nearly deserted street at an ungodly hour of the night. He currently resided in another city just outside of Domino, but still not more than an hour's drive away. He wanted to be close enough so that he could pounce just as soon as he thought of what to do next. Yet despite how many times he attempted to clear his mind, it would always fly back to that deceitful punk Marik and his little whore, or little Yugi and his meddling friends, or…her!

He didn't know how or why but there she was. She was waving at him, smiling at him: his Catherine. He ran to her and gathered her in his arms. He had so many questions. How did she find him and why did she make him wait so long? But these questions could wait. She was here now. They were together again and that was all that mattered. He moved to kiss her beautiful face and his lips made contact with smooth, cold, hard plastic.

All at once the world around him melted back into reality. He was standing in the front window of a clothing store. Somehow the glass door had been broken and the security alarm had been set off. He looked down in his arms to see a plastic mannequin, a cruel reminder of that fateful day when Marik had deceived him. Finally regaining his senses, he dropped the mannequin and ran out the door. He darted through streets and allies until he finally made his way to his current hide-out. As he sat leaning against the front door of his hideout, listening for any sirens that may come his way, he came to a realization. The source of his turmoil became clear. It was Catherine, it had always been Catherine. Because of her, Marik's little doll had been able to get a rise out of him. If her face hadn't suddenly appeared on that girl, he wouldn't have been too distracted to properly monitor Marik. If it weren't for her, he could focus on figuring out a new way to dispose of Marik. The solution was obvious. He had to get rid of Catherine forever.

[-]

Marik walked back from class, still keeping an eye out for potential threats. Even though it had been about a month since Arkana's attack, and Marik received no further threat, he wasn't about to let his guard down. In fact, Arkana's silence was strangely unsettling. The Rare Hunters who were captured did give away Arkana's hiding place, but when the police checked, he'd already gone. The police couldn't find a trace of him and Marik hadn't been given the slightest clue to his whereabouts. It was like Arkana vanished off of the face of the earth, but Marik knew he could just as quickly return.

"Excuse me…" he heard a woman's voice address him as she approached. "Are you Marik Ishtar?" The woman looked to be about in her early thirties. She had short blonde hair, brown eyes, and wore a well-tailored suit. The words "Channel 11 Chicago News" embroidered on her black canvas bag caught most of his attention.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to talk to any reporters," Marik grumbled as he blew past her. He couldn't believe this. Not only was he still being bothered by reporters a month later, but they were coming all the way from Chicago now? Wasn't there anything more interesting going on in the world?

"I'm not here for a story," The woman called after him. He could tell by the clack of her heels that she was struggling to keep up with him, but he didn't slow down.

"I want to help you," she called again. Marik felt a scoff coming on. What help could she possibly have for him?

"I'm Catherine."

This stopped Marik dead in his tracks. "You're _his_ Catherine?" he asked turning to face her again. "I mean, you're Arkana's fiancé?"

"I was," Catherine sighed as she finally caught up to him. "I suppose you would know him by that name. When I knew him, he went by 'Charles' off-stage."

Marik actually did know Arkana's real name. One does not delve into another's mind without learning at least basic details such as a real name. He didn't dwell on this fact though. There were more important matters on his mind now. "Why did you seek me out?" Marik asked in a hushed tone.

"Like I said, I want to offer you whatever help I can," Catherine answered. "I know the police are having some trouble piecing his story together. I also know they are still trying to figure out the logic behind his timing. I believe I have some information that can help."

"Then why are you telling me and not the police?"

"I have told them," she answered patiently, "but I felt you and Molly deserved to hear this information from me before it got out to the media."

"Molly?"

"Yes, you two are still together, aren't you?" she asked with a bit of concern in her voice.

"Well, yes," _technically…_

"Good, at least he didn't ruin that as well."

Mairk wasn't sure if this was entirely true, but he didn't bother correcting her.

"When is the soonest I can speak to the two of you?"

[-]

The class clapped for her as Tea finished her piece. She smiled and thanked them politely before taking a seat in the wings. She sat down next to Molly, who was still absent-mindedly clapping. She seemed to have zoned out, which was not unusual for her lately. "What did you think?" Tea asked, hoping Molly would come back to the real world long enough to give her a critique. One thing they'd promised each other when they became friends was that they'd always give each other honest critiques.

"It was good," Molly muttered, not quite all there yet.

Tea gave her a questioning look. "Just good?"

"Yeah, I liked it," she muttered again.

"Is that all?" Tea pressed.

"I said it was good. What more do you want?"

Well, _someone_ was certainly snippy today. Tea decided not to press further and turned her attention to the dancer currently performing. They sat together quietly as the rest of the dancers in their class performed.

As they were getting off of the stage at the end of class, their teacher pulled Molly aside for a talk. Tea quickly grabbed her things and stood near them, waiting for Molly. She couldn't help overhearing their conversation.

"A therapist?" Molly scoffed, "I don't need to see a therapist. I'm fine."

"Molly, I know you've been through a lot in the last month and I think it will help. I can't help but notice your performance has gone down lately. You're blank faced when you dance, you barely participate…"

"I can do better," Molly insisted.

"I know you can do better. I've seen you do better. That's why I'm recommending that you see her." The teacher flipped to a blank page in her choreography notebook and began jotting down the psychologist's information. "At least take his contact information. I can't make you go. It's just something to think about."

"Alright I'll think about it," Molly said, taking the paper. "Thanks anyway."

As soon as the conversation was over, Molly packed up her things and started walking out with Tea. "Can you believe this?" Molly grumbled as soon as they were out of earshot from the teacher. "She's acting like I'm traumatized or something. And it's not just her. My parents want me home every weekend and they want me to go to a therapist too."

"Well, Molly, maybe that's a good idea," Tea said cautiously. "I mean, you haven't exactly been yourself lately."

"What do you mean by that?" She snapped.

"Well, for starters you've been pretty short with everyone," Tea began as they made their way through the lobby and out the auditorium door. "You zone out every chance you get, and-" Tea stopped when she noticed Molly frozen at the door and staring wide-eyed at the path ahead of them. Unfortunately, this was not unusual either.

"It's alright," Tea said, placing a gentle hand on her friend's back. "There's nobody there."

Molly looked down and quietly mumbled "How do you know?"

"What?"

"I mean…" Molly jerked away from Tea's hand started speed-walking up the path. "Of course there's nobody there. It's not like I think somebody's going to jump out at me. That'd just be…silly…"

"What's silly is your constant insisting that you're fine when there is clearly something wrong," Tea called after her. She didn't mean for it to come out so blunt, but she was getting sick of this routine.

"But I am fine." Molly called back as Tea rushed to catch up with her.

"Okay…" Tea rubbed her eyes as she figured out the best way to put what she wanted to say. "You say you're fine? Great. But everyone who's been bringing it up…they're just worried about you. No one is expecting you to get over what happened easily."

"If I can prove to you and everyone else that I really am fine, will that make everyone feel better?"

"How exactly do you plan to do that?" Tea asked skeptically.

Molly thought for a second as they passed a bulletin board. She stopped when her eye caught sight of a poster advertising the spring semester dance. "Let's go," she said, never taking her eyes off of the poster.

"The dance? Are you sure you're up for it?"

"Yeah, it looks like fun," Molly replied, a bit irritated.

"Alright," Tea shrugged. "Let's see if the guys want to go, too."

[-]

_Marik looked through the bookshelves of the library looking for something to catch his attention. He was just putting another book back when he heard a giggle coming from the other side of the shelf. He pulled the book back out and peered through the gap in the shelf. On the other side he saw that girl, Molly, he'd met about a week ago. She was sitting on the floor and smiling distantly to herself as she flipped through the book in her hands. Whatever she was reading, she seemed to like it. _

_Suddenly feeling creepy about spying on her, he put the book back and decided to look in a different part of the library._

"_Hey, Marik, right?" He heard her whisper-call to him as he passed the aisle she was in. He looked over to see that she'd lowered her book and her smile was now directed at him._

"_Oh, hello." He'd been hoping she'd be too enamored with her book to notice him, but apparently not. _

"_So, what'cha been up to?"_

"_Nothing much, you?" He hoped her answer would be just as quick and he could go about his business. However, her reply told him that a simple exchange of pleasantries wasn't what she had in mind._

"_I'm reading _The Matchmaker_. It's for class, but I read it once before. Have you ever read it?"_

"_No. What's it about?" he asked, though he wasn't sure why was lending himself to further conversation. He wasn't used to this; people being friendly to him for no good reason. He finally walked into the aisle. She patted the space on the floor next to her, clearly an invitation for him to join her. _

"_Well, there's this shop owner who is going into the city with the matchmaker to meet this woman the matchmaker found for him. Although the matchmaker is actually the one who wants to marry him. Meanwhile, his two clerks decide to close up the shop while he is away and go have an adventure in the city for themselves and they end up running into the woman the shop owner was originally supposed to meet and her assistant. The whole play is about the matchmaker trying to win the shop owner over, and the clerks trying to have their big city adventure while not getting caught by their boss. Oh, I almost forgot about the shop owner's niece who is eloping with a man he doesn't approve of…It's a farce." Molly finished, noting the confused look on Marik's face. "You know, a comedy." _

"_Yes, I know what a farce is. You say you've read this before?" _

"_Yeah, once in 9__th__ grade, and when I was a kid, I went with family to see _Hello Dolly_. That's the musical based on the play," She replied. "I think that's when I started loving musicals like that."_

"_Like what?"_

"_Like, 42__nd__ street, Mary Poppins, Singing in the Rain, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying… The kind with big jazz and tap dance breaks, 11 'o clock numbers, and all of the peppy characters, all full of moxie, going off on a quirky, whimsical adventure and after all of those hijinks, everyone gets a happy ending."_

_Marik had no idea what she was talking about, but that didn't matter. The way she lit up when she talked about the topic was infectious. "You really like happy endings, don't you?"_

"_Of course," a bit of confusion showed on her face but her smile never wavered, "Doesn't everybody?"_

Marik came out of his daydream just in time to find Duke about to poke him in the cheek with the eraser end of a pencil. He snatched the pencil away and glared at his friend. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Ah, so you are still in there," Duke snickered.

"What were you thinking about?" Yugi asked.

Marik looked across the table in the dorm lounge where they were studying. "Not much, really," he replied dishonestly.

"Were you thinking about what Catherine wants to tell you?" Yugi pressed further.

Marik nodded, deciding that sounded more believable, as he'd just told them about his encounter with the woman. He opted not to tell them that he was just thinking about happier times he'd spent with Molly, back when she was still herself. He figured they didn't want to hear him wax nostalgic about her disarming smile, her excitable nature or her inviting presence. Even he was starting to get sick of it, especially the part where he could hardly see that side of Molly outside of his daydreams now. Nowadays she made attempts to act like her old self, but her deeper concerns could not be completely concealed. He noticed that she'd become very distant from him ever since he told her about his past. At times it seemed like she was not there at all, like her mind had wandered somewhere far away. It was like she placed herself behind a barrier that did not use to be there. He supposed he could not blame her after everything that happened, but that did not mean he had to like it.

Just then, Tea and Molly came in from outside. "Hey guys," Tea greeted. "Molly and I were just looking at some flyers for the spring dance and we were wondering if you guys wanted to go."

Marik was quiet as he listened to all of his friends agree. He looked at Molly and wondered what she thought of all of this. It certainly sounded like something she would have wanted to do, that is before Arkana interfered with her, although now he wasn't sure. "Molly, do you want to go too?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was my idea."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I wanted to go out and do something fun for a change."

Her voice was mostly calm and maybe even a bit cheerful. It almost sounded like the old Molly, but there were hints of shyness and tension in her voice that indicated she may just be putting on an act. Either she was shakily trying to heal and move on, or she was still trying to mask her true feelings out of…pride maybe? No, that didn't seem to fit. He still hadn't worked out her motivation for her mask, but maybe if he could, he could figure out how to get past her newly constructed walls.

"Alright then, if it's really something you want, then I'll go with you." Whatever her motivations were, Marik decided to go along with it. Who knows, maybe she really was starting get back to her old self, and maybe a little fun was just what she needed.

"Alright! Finally something fun we can all do together," Joey exclaimed. "Man and I thought we were about to dive head-first back into the serious stuff after what Marik told us."

"What Marik told you?" Molly asked.

"Joey, what are you talking about?" Tea added.

Joey shrank as he realized his loose lips got the better of him once again. "Oh, yeah I guess you guys weren't here for that. Sorry Marik, guess I blew your big news."

"That's fine Joey," Marik said, although he did not bother to ide the irritation in his voice. "Molly, Catherine contacted me today. She wanted to speak with us."

"Who's Catherine?" Tea asked.

"She's Arkana's ex-fiancé," Molly answered tensing up, as if just the memory of that man disturbed her.

"Yes, and she says she has information about Arkana and she feels we should hear it straight from her. Originally she only wanted to speak with the two of us, but I told her all of you were just as invested in this as we are," Marik explained.

"So we're all going to talk to her?" Tea asked.

Marik nodded. "Yes, we're meeting her tonight." Marik noticed that Molly's demeanor changed drastically since Arkana was first brought up. She sort of retreated into herself and she wore a grave expression on her face. Marik got up from his seat and went to her. "Is this alright with you?" he asked gently taking her hand.

"Of course," she answered, drawing away from him once again. "We should hear what she has to say."

[-]

The group gathered in Yugi and Marik's dorm room to listen to Catherine's story. Everyone was sort of crammed into the relatively small room. Catherine sat in Marik's desk chair while everyone else gathered around her. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Marik noticed that Molly was once again keeping her distance from him. He sat on the edge of his bed while she sat across the room on Yugi's with Tea. He put this out of his mind for now, though. Arkana was still at large and anything regarding him and his whereabouts took top priority.

"Well, I suppose I should begin with how I met Charles," Catherine said as she began her story. "I was about twenty years old and living on my own in Las Vegas. You see, I was from Chicago originally but I longed for an exciting, glamorous life in show business. My parents wanted me to go to college, but as soon as I graduated high school, I packed my bags and moved to Vegas with dreams of being a showgirl. However, it turned out to be a very hard business to break into, so I spent a lot of time auditioning with the best jobs I'd been able to get being promotional modeling jobs. That is, until I went on the audition that changed my life. I'd gotten an audition to be an assistant to an up and coming magician."

"It was Arkana, wasn't it?" Marik asked.

Catherine nodded and lowered her head a bit. "Yes, it was. He oversaw the audition personally and out of dozens of girls, he chose me. He said I was the most beautiful girl on the stage and that he'd only share the stage with the best. It made me feel so special; Charles could do that to me." She paused for a moment. "Anyway, the job was only supposed to be for a few weeks while his show was in town, but he soon made me his permanent assistant. I began travelling the world with him, a prominent feature in all of his shows…though as the assistant I naturally stood in his shadow. But still, I was finally living the life that I'd always dreamed of. As you already know, I began a relationship with him which only further opened the door to the glamorous life I craved. He'd take me to lavish parties, I lived with him in his luxurious home, and he'd give me expensive gifts. It was obvious he'd fallen in love with me and I thought I'd fallen for him too. When he proposed, I obviously accepted and we planned to marry in Las Vegas where we'd met.

"But then, the accident happened. It was just a stupid little mistake. The timer for the pyrotechnics for the finale had been set wrong and they went off while he was doing an escape act. He was badly burned on over half of his body and spent a lot of time recovering in the hospital. Before the accident, we'd been quite wealthy, but our previous free spending ways and his medical bills took a toll. He acted as if it wasn't a problem, saying that he'd earn it all back when he got back into magic again. It was obvious to everyone but him that his career was over.

"I began going on auditions again, which Charles didn't like one bit, especially if they involved working with other men. I remember once I'd gotten a temporary job assisting a popular new magician. I explained that it would only be for a few weeks and that I wouldn't even have contact with the magician outside of shows, but he was furious. He even attempted to fly into a jealous rage, but his injured body wouldn't even allow him to do this. It was just so pitiful that I dropped the job that day. But as I continued a seemingly endless stream of auditions, a few things became clear to me. First, was that I no longer enjoyed working as a performer. While I once saw the industry as a world of glamour and excitement, I now only saw the instability and the harshness of rejection. This was probably strengthened by my other realization. With each rejection and criticism, I began to realize that the life I had was not built through my own efforts. Everything I had, I owed to Charles. He'd given me my job, my home, and even my friends. I had nothing that I could truly call my own.

"Between this and Charles' growing frustration with the situation, I'd decided that it would be best if I left the industry. Charles hated the idea, insisting that he would perform again and he needed me to be his assistant. He lashed out, threatening to break off the engagement if I refused to be his assistant again. It became clear to me that I could not rebuild my life and keep him as well. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, but I chose to leave him. I moved back home to Chicago and with the help of my parents, I went back to school and graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. I am now a reporter at a local news station in Chicago. I have a job and a life of my own and in the end, I know my decision was the right one."

Marik listened intently, although most of what she said was not news to him. He knew most of the story from his probing of Arkana's mind, although hearing it from Catherine's side certainly painted a different picture of the situation. However, it did not answer any questions he had about Arkana now. "Thank you for coming all the way out here to tell us this, but what does it have to do with Arkana's plans?"

"I was about to get to that. You see, when I left Las Vegas, it was not the last time I saw him. He contacted me this past summer. He called me and asked me to meet up with him. I was reluctant to see him again, but he said he only wanted to apologize, so I agreed. As he said, he apologized for the way he acted after the accident and for forcing me to choose between him and my own happiness. I told him I forgave him. But then, he went off on a tangent about how this meant I still loved him and that he always knew we would be together again. What he didn't anticipate that was that I was already engaged to someone else." Catherine turned over what appeared to be a simple silver band on her ring finger, revealing it to be an engagement ring.

"As you can imagine, Charles did not take the news well. He became enraged, claiming that if he had not gotten involved with someone named Marik, he would have found me sooner. He stormed off and I did not see or hear from him again until I heard the news of what he'd done to you."

"Arkana probably began plotting his revenge soon after that," Marik said. "This at least solves the mystery as to why he acted when he did. Do you, by any chance, know anything about where he might be hiding?"

Catherine shook her head. "I'm afraid not. I have told you everything I know. I'm sorry I can't help you with anything more. When I heard about what happened I couldn't help but feel partially responsible. I don't know how he believes you've wronged him, but he had no right to torture you the way he did, especially you Molly."

She got up and crossed the room to where Molly was seated. "From what I understand, you had nothing to do with Char-I mean Arkana- before he attacked you. I'm sorry you got caught up in all of this."

Molly looked up at her, unsure of how to respond. She'd been quite this whole time, processing this new information. After a moment she finally responded with "Thank you," but immediately felt stupid for not coming up with something better.

Catherine nodded at her reply. "Well, I should be going now. I really am sorry about what happened. Thank you all for hearing me out." She finished her goodbyes and left. Everyone in the room exploded into conversation, talking about everything that Catherine just told them. Molly, however, remained quiet, pondering over Catherine's story. She found it hard to think of Arkana as anything but a monster, but the story Catherine told gave him a much more human side. She had so many questions.

After a moment of deliberation, Molly got up and followed after Catherine, finally catching up to her when she was about to get into her rented car. "Catherine, wait. Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course Molly, what is it?"

"If you weren't engaged, or even close to it…" Molly began, slowly. "Even knowing all of the terrible stuff that he did, if Arkana came to you and said he truly changed and that he was sorry and that even we forgave him…would you be able to take him back?"

"Hmmm, I get the feeling we are not really talking about Arkana," Catherine said as the closed the car door.

Molly looked away for a moment. She debated whether or not to tell this near stranger what she'd been turning over in her head for weeks. She hadn't even talked to Tea about it, but it was possible that Catherine was the only one who could understand. "A few weeks ago, Marik told me things about his past. I don't think I should repeat them, but…he's done some things, terrible things. I mean, he didn't kill anyone or anything like that but, how are you supposed to react when someone tells you something like that? Not just anyone, you're boyfriend who risked his life for you."

"I'm not sure I understand. Is he asking for you to forgive him?"

"What? No, he's not asking me to forgive him. Hell, he's never done anything to me. He's asking me to trust him in spite of everything he's done; to believe that he's a changed person."

"Well, do you believe him?"

"I'm not sure. I want to believe him. He's been nothing but good to me since the day I met him. But he admitted to being really good at manipulating people. I can't help but look at everything he ever did and wonder if it was all just a big manipulation. And even if it's not, would it be wrong? Is it wrong to love someone, even though they've done horrible things in they've past?"

"Oh dear," Catherine smiled affectionately. "How old are you, Molly?"

"I'll be nineteen in April."

"Oh my, you're even younger than I was," Catherine said as she put a supportive hand on Molly's shoulder. "You want to know if it's wrong to love someone? No, I don't think it's ever wrong to love someone. But loving someone does not always mean that they are right for you. It is up to you to figure that out."

Molly was silent for a moment before responding. "You said you knew your decision to leave Arkana was the right one. How did you know?"

"I'm afraid you can't know for sure until some time has passed and you are able to look back at your decision clearly. My life was falling apart and Charles gave me an ultimatum. I knew I could no longer be happy in the life he'd given me, so the only option I had was to leave him. It was for the best and I don't regret it, but I am sorry I had to break his heart. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but I had to do what was right for me. I don't know what the future will hold for you, but I do know this. You can't put it off forever."

Molly was quite for a moment before asking, "When you were deciding, did you have anyone to talk to about it?"

"I'm afraid I didn't." In truth, Catherine didn't really have anyone at the time to talk to as she'd been estranged from her parents and didn't have any friends who weren't also Charles' – most of whom left after the accident -, but she remembered how desperately she'd wished she did. Catherine took out her business card and handed it to Molly. "I'll be in Domino for the rest of the week. I'd be glad to help you some more if I can. Just call this number if you need anything."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to do that. I'm sorry if I kept you from anything. I'll let you go."

"Don't worry about it. I'm happy to help in any way I can," Catherine replied. They then said their goodbyes and Catherine got in her car and drove away.

[-]

_Molly found herself walking down a long hallway. She couldn't exactly tell when she was. The walls and the floor were both white and brightly reflected the lights that were overhead. As she proceeded down the hallway, she took notice of the doors on either side of her. Numerous doors stood on the walls, each presenting a new choice, a new possibility. As she continues on the doors seemed to multiply. They appeared to leap off of the walls and float independently, surrounding her. Their numbers became overwhelming and the light became blinding. Before she could lose herself to the chaos, on voice was able to capture her attention. _

"_Molly?"_

_She turned around to see Marik standing behind her. In this moment, he seemed as kind and strong as she used to see him. _

"_Molly, are you alright?"_

"_I miss this," she said with a sad smile. _

"_This?" He gave her a questioning look. "I don't think we've ever done this before."_

"_No, I mean I miss you." Molly turned her back completely on the doors and slowly approached Marik. "I miss when you were just Marik. You were smart, strong, kind and passionate. You're brave and loyal, and you always put 100% into everything you do. I don't think I can even begin to explain how much you love your siblings. You're one of the coolest people I ever met and you don't even act like you know it…"_

"_I didn't know it actually," he said with a smile. He was clearly enjoying this. "Wait, am I not that way now?" His face fell into an almost panic-stricken expression. "Why not? What happened to me? Did I hurt you?"_

"_No, in fact you did the most incredible thing for me," she said, coming closer. "You saved my life. I don't know how I can ever thank you."_

"_Then, what is it?"_

"_You told me everything about you past, everything."_

_Marik let his eyes drop to the floor. "Oh, I see."_

"_I don't even know what to think anymore. Apparently you had this magic rod that you could use to tap into people's minds. You used it to control people and you used them to get revenge on some pharaoh for something he didn't even do. And you told all of this right after you saved my life. You made me think you were the most incredible person I ever met and then you turned around and told me that you were some sort of malevolent puppet master? What are you trying to do to my head? And which of these people are you really?"_

_He didn't respond to her and instead let her continue. _

"_I just don't understand. The way you act now, you've given me no reason to believe that you'll ever hurt me. Then I wonder how you could possibly have it in you to do all of those horrible things. But you must because you did do them. And if you could do all of that, then hurting me would nothing to you."_

"_No, wouldn't be nothing,"_ _he said quietly. "Do you regret knowing the truth?"_

"_No, it's better that I know. I know it is. I just have a hard time accepting this when I sometimes wish we could just go back to the way we were before, when you were just…you."_

"_Molly, you can't go back. Look." Marik put his hand against the large pane of glass that separated them. Molly hadn't seen it before. It stretched from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. Molly placed both of her hands on the glass as well, bewildered. _

"_Marik, what is this?"_

"_I am the Marik that you thought you knew; from before you knew the truth."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Perception is a funny thing. You saw me as kind, smart, and strong – and all of those other great things you said – so, in a way, I became real, at least to you. But now that you can no longer see me that way, I can no longer move forward, nor can you go backward."_

"_What if I want to stay here with you?" She looked longingly through the glass, into his eyes._

"_That is not an option, Molly. You are real. You have you keep moving forward. I cannot go with you, although I can offer you some comfort. Look behind me."_

_Molly did look behind him. She saw another Marik sitting further down the hall. He sat with his back against the wall. He looked up at her and his eyes showed so much hatred and malice that it frightened her. _

"_Don't worry, Molly. He can't hurt you. Look again." _

_When she did, she saw that this Marik was also trapped behind a pane of glass. "He can't move forward either."_

_Marik nodded in reply. "The real Marik has changed his ways, and so this Marik no longer exists."_

"_But the real Marik, if he's not you and he's not the other Marik, then who is he?"_

"_I cannot say. If you want to know, you must discover that for yourself. But I do know this. Like you, he will continue to move forward, but he has given you the power to decide whether or not the two of you will continue on together." _

"_How do I choose?"_

"_I believe you have already made that decision, but you are afraid of being wrong."_

"_Well, of course I am," she declared, pushing away from the glass. "I can't afford to be wrong about something this important."_

"_There will always be risk, Molly. You have to accept this, or you will never move on."_

_Molly nodded in understanding. She turned around. The chaos that once surrounded her had now dispersed. All that was left before her were two doors. She chose one and opened it._

[-]

That Friday night, Catherine returned to her hotel room after having dinner. She'd stayed the rest of the week, just as she told Molly she would. When she first booked her trip, she wasn't sure why she'd chosen to stay so long. Perhaps she just wanted to stay close by in case they needed any more of her help. Although, after going a few days without hearing anything from Molly, she supposed she could offer no more.

She opened the door to her hotel room and stepped inside. The door closed behind her, leaving the room in complete darkness. She reached to turn on the lights. At almost the exact moment she flipped the switch, she felt an arm wrap tightly around her waist and a cold knife press against her throat.

"Don't make a sound."

The tone was cold and menacing, but Catherine would recognize that voice anywhere. "Charles?"

"I can't take this anymore, Catherine." He turned her around so to face him. He pressed her back against the wall and still held the knife at her throat. "You won't leave me alone and I can't take it."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she muttered as she felt her heart slam rapidly in her chest.

"You won't leave me my head. I see you everywhere. You're driving me insane and I have to get rid of you."

"Charles, please, think about what you're doing."

"Think? I can't think; not with you clouding my mind. I can't even think of a way to get back at that deceitful bastard, Marik."

"Perhaps that is a good thing. You had no right to do what you did to those kids."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know what you did was wrong."

"Shut up! You have no idea what Marik did to me. If you knew what really happened you-"

He was interrupted by the sound of Catherine's ringing cell phone. A bead of sweat ran down Catherine's face. Perhaps he would answer and she could call for help to whoever was on the other end.

Arkana looked at the screen and became furious when he saw the name "Molly" flashing back at him.

"You've been conspiring with them!" He threw the phone to the ground. "You're telling them how to bring me down."

"No, I've been helping them. Do you have any idea what you're actions have put them through? That poor girl Molly-"

"Pfft, I don't care about what happens to her," he scoffed. "This was never about Molly. She is nothing but a tool."

"You mean you don't care about the people you've hurt? At all?" she exclaimed, disgusted.

"I want Marik to suffer. I want him to feel every type of pain there is. If I can use his little toy to get to him, then I will." A sinister grin spread across Arkana's face. "Of course, that's not to say I didn't enjoy watching Marik's little whore break down."

"How could you?" Catherine could barely speak she was so horrified. How could this possibly be the man she once loved? "When did you become so cruel?"

Arkana's face hardened. He purposefully held the knife tighter and the blade against Catherine's neck stiffened. "You made me this way."

[-]

"You have reached Catherine Curvall. I can't come to the phone right now, but if you will please leave your name and number, I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you and goodbye."

Molly let out disappointed sigh as she listened for the beep. "Hi Catherine, it's me, Molly. I'm calling because I had this dream last night and… Anyway, I thought you'd like to know that I know what I'm going to do about Marik. I was hoping I could meet up with you and talk to you about it. I really want to thank you for all of your help… And please don't blame yourself for what Arka – I mean Charles – did. I really don't think you could have prevented it. Anyway, please call me when you get this. I look forward to seeing you again. Okay, goodbye."

* * *

Wow, has it been a year already? Well, at least it's a long one. I really hope I can start getting these out faster now that I'm finished with school, but I'm also entering the real world, so probably not. I promise I'll keep writing until the story is over.


End file.
